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HISTORICAL 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

BY 

SAMUEL wi'-'PENNYPACKER. 



Dan sy lialtend styft' das widerspyl, vnd leerend, di<? Oberkeit moge und 
soUe sicli del- Religion vnd tiloubens sachen niit annehmen. * * 
Es bedunckt die Touft'er vngebiirlich syn, dass in der kirchen ein ander 
schwardt dan nun dess (jottljchen worts soUe gebrucht werden : vnd noch 
vil vngebiirliclier, dass man mensclien, das ist, denen die in der Oberkeit 
sind, solle die sachen der Religion oder Gloubens hendel vnderwerffen. 

Ballinger's Widertoutferen Vrsprung, p. 165, printed 
by Froschower, at Zurich, 1560. 




PHILADELPHIA, PA. : 
ROBERT A. TRIPPLE, 

1883. 



CoW' 



f\^ 







Entered'according to Aot ol Congress, in the year 1883, 

By ROBERT A. TRIPPLE, 

In the OflSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PR EFACE. 



The philologist, who seeks to know something of the language 
of the primeval man of Europe, finds amid the mountains of the 
Pyrenees, the Basques, who have preserved down to the present 
time the tongue of these remote forefathers. The ethnologist 
studies the habits of prehistoi'ic races not by the uncertain light of 
early legends, but by going to the Islands of the South Pacific, 
where savage life still exists, as it was before the dawn of civiliza- 
tion. The historian, who pursuing the same methods of investi- 
gation, would stand face to face with the Reformation, need only 
visit the Mennonites of Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania, where 
he can see still rigorou.sly preserved, the thought, the faith, the habits^ 
the ways of living, and even the dress of tbat important epoch. The 
hymn book in ordinary use by the Amish was written Iti the 16th 
Century, and from it they still zealously sing about Felix Mantz, 
who was drowned at Zurich, in 1526, and Michael Sattler, who 
had his tongue torn out ;uKi was then burned to death at Rot- 
tenburg in 1527. Whether we regard their personal history, 
or the results of their teachings, the Mennonites were the most 
interesting people who came to America. There is scarcely a family 
among them which cannot be traced to .<ome ancestor burned to 
death because of his faith. Their whole literature smacks of the 
fire. Beside a record like theirs, the sufferings of Pilgrim and 
Quaker seem trivial. A hundred years before the time of Roger 
Williams, George Fox and William Penti, the Dutch reformer 
Menno Simons contended for the complete severance of Church 
and State, and the struggle.^ for religious and political liberty, 
which convulsed Englaml and led to the Englisli colonization of 
America in the Seventeenth Century, were logical results of 
doctrines advanced by the Dutch and German Anabaptists in 
the one which preceded. 



i PREFACK. 

About ten years ago I formed the de.sign of writing the 
history of the Mennonites in America. It was for many reasons 
a task of extreme difficulty. It required a preliminary knowledge 
of the German and Dutch languages. No collection of their books 
had ever been made in this country, nothing of value had been 
published concerning them except some papers in the " Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch," which were descriptive rather than liisrorical. and 
the structure had to be erected from its foundation. More than all, 
the conviction entertained by them that fame is only one of the 
vanities, and the desire for it but a form of worldliness, has led 
them in the past to destroy, rather than to preserve, those materials 
which are the ordinary souices of historical information. When a 
book was written the name of the author did not appear ; when a 
meeting house was built, no tablet told the date; and when a man 
was buried, no stone w^as raised to his memory. These difficulties 
and the exacting demands of a professional life have so far rptarded, 
if not prevented, the completion of the desigii, and the results up to 
the present time have been a somewhat full collection of their books 
and manuscripts, and the first seven papers gathered into this 
volume. 

Though a torso, I believe the work so far as it has gone to be 
thorough, and if it should not progress to the end, I shall at least 
have the satisfaction of having contributed something to the his- 
tory of a people who are in every way worthy of the most careful 
study, and who will sooner or later attract wide attention. 

The circumstances under which the other papers were written 
are for the most part explained in the notes accompanying them. 
All of those which have heretofore appeared in the magazines of 
the day are so described in the sub-titles, and they have all been here 
corrected and enlarged. Full credit has been given in the notes and 
elsewhere for the use made of the labors of other investigators. It 
ought, however, to be said, that I am much indebted to Mr. F. D. 
Stone for as.sistance and suggestions in th*^ preparation of the article 
upon David Rittenhouse. 

Pinr.ADEt.i'Ui.v, April nth, ift/is. 



CONTENTS. 



1. The Skttlkmknt ov (inuMANTowN. Pa., and thk 

CAUSKS WHICH LED T«> IT. . " . . 7 

2. David Ritteniioise, the American Astronomer, . 59 

5. Christopher Dock, the Pious Schoolmaster on the 

Skippnck, and his Works, .... 89 

4. Der Blutige Schau-platz, odek Martyrek Spie- 

gel. Epiirata. Pa., 174^8. A Noteworthy Book, . 155 

•5. Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania, . . 175 

6. Abkahaai and Dirck op den Graefe, . . 201 

7. ZlONITISCHEK WeYRAUCHS HciiEL ODER MyRRHEN 

Berg. Germantown, 1739, . . . . 223 

5. William Moore of Moore Hall, . . . 229 
5. Samuel Richardson, a Councilor, Judge and Legis- 
lator of the Olden Time, .... 241 

10. Captain Joseph Richardson, . . . 257 

11. Samuel John Atlee, Colonel of" the Pennsylvania 

Musketry Battalion in the Revolutionary Army, . 269 

12. James Ahkam Garfield, .... 285 

13. Henry Armitt Brown. .... 293 

14. Charles Frederick Tayloij, . . . 299 

15. Six Weeks in Uniform, being the record of a term in 

the Military Service of the United States in the 
Gettyshuru; Campaign of 1863, . . . 305 



THE 



Settlement of Germantown. Pa 



AND THE 



CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT, 



From the Pennsylvania Magazine of History 
and Biography. Vol. IV, p. 1. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 11 

No other known literary work undertaken in the Colonies 
equals in magnitude the Mennonite Martyrs' Mirror of Van 
Braght, printed at Ephrata in 1748, whose publication re- 
quired the labors of fifteen men for three years. The 
Speaker of the first House of Representatives under the 
Federal Constitution and seven of the Governors of Penn- 
sylvania were men of German descent. The statue se- 
lected to represent in the capitol at Washington the mili- 
tary reputation of Pennsylvania is that of a German. 
Said Thomas Jefferson of David Rittenhouse : " He has 
not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation ap- 
proached nearer its maker than any man who has lived 
from the creation to this day."^ There are no Pennsyl- 
vania names more cherished at home, and more deservedly 
known abroad, than those of Wister, Shoemaker, Muhlen- 
berg, Weiser, Hiester, Keppele and Keim, and there are 
few Pennsylvanians, not comparatively recent arrivals, 
who cannot be carried back along some of their ances- 
tral lines to the country of the Rhine. An examination 
of the earliest settlement of the Germans in Pennsylva- 
nia, and a study of the causes which produced it may, 
therefore, well be of interest to all who appreciate the 
value of our State history. The first impulse followed by 
the first wave of emigration came from Crefeld, a city of 
the lower Rhine, within a few miles of the borders of 
Holland. On the 10th of March, 1682, William Penn 
conveyed to Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, doing business as a 
merchant in Amsterdam, Jan Streypers, a merchant of 
Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinity, still nearer to Hol- 



Bible, both j..nnted iu 1791, was the " First great Quarto Bible in 
America," apparently unaware that Saur was a half century 
earlier. 

' Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 



12 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

land, and Dirck Sipman, of Crefeld, each five thousand 
acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. As the 
deeds were executed upon that day,^ the design must 

^ Mr. Lawrence Lewis lias suggested that under the system of 
double dating between Jan. 1st and March 25th, which then prevailed, 
it is probable that the date was March 10th, 1682-3. The evidence 
pro and con is strong and conflicting. The facts in favor of 1682-3 
are mainly — 

1. It is manifest from an examination of the patents that the 
custom was, whenever a single date, as 1682, was mentioned within 
those limits, the latter date, 1682-3, was meant. 

2. A deed to Telner, dated June 2d, 1683 (Ex. Rec. 8, p. 655), 
recites as follows : " Whereas the said William Penn by indentures 
of lease and release, bearing date the ninth and tenth days of the 
month called March for the consideration therein mentioned, etc." 
The presumption is that the March referred to is the one imme- 
diately preceding. 

3. The lease and release to Telner March 9th and 10th, 1682, and 
several deeds of June, 1683, are all recited to have been iu the 35th 
year of the reign of Charles II. It is evident that March 10th, 
1681-2, and June, 1683, could not both have been within the same 
year. 

This would be enough to decide the matter if the facts in favor 
of 1681-2 were not equally conclusive. They are — 

1. It is probable, a ijriori, and from the German names of the 
witnesses that the deeds to the Crefelders, except that to Telner, 
were dated and delivered by Benj. Furly, Penn's agent at Rotter- 
dam for the sale of lands. In both Holland and Germany the pre- 
sent system of dating had been in use for over a century. 

2. A patent (Ex. E-ec. vol. i. p. 462) recites as follows : 
" Whereas by my indentures of lease and release dated the 9 and 
10 days of March Anno 1682 .... and whereas by my in- 
dentures dated the first day of April, and year aforesaid, I remised 
and released to the same Dirck Sipman the yearly rent. . . ." 
The year aforesaid was 1682, and if the quit rent was released 
April 1st, 1682, the conveyance to Sipman must have been earlier. 
If on the 25th of March another year, 1683, had intervened, the 
word aforesaid could not have been correctly used. This construc- 
tion is strengthened by the fact that the release of quit rent to 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 13 

have been in contemplation and tlie arrangements made 
some time before. Telner had been in America between 
the years 1678 and 1681, and we may safely infer that 
his acquaintance with the country had much influence in 
bringing about the purchase.^ 

In November, 1682, we find the earliest reference to 
the enterprise which subsequently resulted in the forma- 
tion of the Frankfort Company. At that date Pastorius 
heard of it for the first time, and he, as ag-ent, boumit the 
lands when in London between the 8th of May and 6th 
of June, 1683.^ The eight original purchasers were 
Jacob Van de Walle, Dr. Johann Jacob Schutz, Johann 
Wilhelm Ueberfeldt, Daniel Behagel, Gasper Merian, 
George Strauss, Abraham Hasevoet, and Jan I_jaurens, 
an intimate friend of Telner, apparently living at Rot- 
terdam. Before Nov. 12th, 1686, on which day, in the 
language of the Manatawny patent, they " formed them- 

Streypers, which took place April 1st, 1683, is recited in another 
patent (Ex. Rec. 1, p. 686) as follows: "Of which said sum or 
yearly rent by an indenture bearing date the first day of April for 
the consideration therein mentioned in the year 1683 I remised and 
released." 

3. The lease and release to Telner on March 9th and 10th, 1682, are 
signed by William Peon, witnessed by Herbert Springett, Thomas 
Coxe, and Seth Oraske, and purport to have been executed in Eng- 
land. An Op den Graeff deed in Germantown book recites that 
they were executed at London. Now in March, 1681-2, Penn was 
in England, but in March, 1682-3, he was in Philadelphia. 

4. Pastorius says that Penn at first declined to give the Frank- 
fort Co. city lots, because they had made their purchase after he 
(Penn) had left England and the books had been closed, and that 
a special arrangement was made to satisfy them. Penn left Eng- 
land Sept. 1st, 1682. The deeds show that the Crefelders received 
their city lots. 

^ Hazard's Register, vol. vi. p. 183. 

^ Pastorius MS. in the Historical Society of Pa. 



14 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

selves into a company," the last named four bad with- 
drawn, and their interests had been taken by Francis 
Daniel Pastorius, the celebrated Johanna Eleanora Von 
Merlau, wife of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Peterson, Dr. Ger- 
hard Von Mastricht, Dr. Thomas Von Wylich, Johannes 
Lci)iun, Balthasar Jawert, and Dr. Johannes Kemler. 
That this was the date of the organization of tlie Com- 
pany is also' recited in the power of attorney which they 
executed in 1700.^ Up to the 8th of June, 1683, they 
seem to have bought 15,000 acres of land, which were 
afterwards increased to 25,000 acres. Of the eleven 
members nearly all were followers of the pietist Spener, 
and five of them lived at Frankfort, two in Wesel, two 
in Lubeck, and one in Duisberg. Though to this com- 
pany has generally been ascribed the settlement of Ger- 
maatown, and with it the credit of being the originators 
of German emigration, no one of its members except 
Pastorius ever came to Pennsylvania, and of still more 
significance is the fact that, so far as known, no one of 
the early emigrants to Pennsylvania came from Frankfort. 
On the 11th of June, 1683, Penn conveyed to Govert 
Remkc, Lenart Arets, and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, a 
baker, all of Crefeld, one thousand acres of land each, 
and they, together with Telner, Streypers, and Sipman, 
constituted the original Crefeld purchasers. It is evi- 
dent that their purpose was colonization, and not specu- 
lation. The arrangement between Penn and Sipman 
provideil that a certain number of families should go to 
Pennsylvania within a specified time, and probably the 



^ The power of attorney says, "and desswegen in Kraffts dess 
den 12 Noveiribris, 1GS6, beUebten briefFes eiiie Societal geschlos- 
sen." Both the original agreement and the letter of attorney, 
with their autographs and seals, are in my possession. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMA.NTOWN. 15 

other purchasers entered into similar stipulations.-^ How- 
ever that may be, ere long thirteen men with their fami- 
lies, comprising thirty-three persons, nearly all of whom 
were relatives, were ready to embark to seek new homes 
across the ocean. They were Lenart Arets, Abraham 
Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Hermann Op den 
Graeff, Willem Streypers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Ty- 
son, Jan Seimens,. Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes 
Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes. The three 
Op den Graeffs were brothers, Hermann was a son-in- 
law of Van Bebber, they were accompanied by their sis- 
ter Margaretha, and they were cousins of Jan and Willem 
Streypers, who were also brothers. The wives of Thones 
Kunders and Lenart Arets were sisters of the Streypers, 
and the wife of Jan was the sister of Reynier Tyson. 
Peter Keurlis was also a near relative, and the location 
of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on 
the certificate of the marriage of a son of Thones Kun- 
ders with a daughter of Willem Streypers in 1710 indi- 
cates that they too were connected with the group by 
family ties.'^ On the 7th of June, 1683, Jan Streypers 
and Jan Lensen entered into an agreement at Orefeld by 
the terms of which Streypers was to let Lensen have fifty 
acres of land at a rent of a rix dollar and half a stuyver, 
and to lend him fifty rix dollars for eight years at the in- 
terest of six rix dollars annually. Lensen was to trans- 
port himself and wife to Pennsylvania, to clear eight 
acres of Streyper's land and to work for him twelve days 
in each year for eight years. The agreement proceeds, " I 
further promise to lend him a Linnen-weaving stool with 

^ Dutch, deed from Sipman to Peter Schumaclier in the German- 
town Book in the Recorder's office. 

^ Streper MSS. in the Historical Society. The marriage certifi- 
cate belongs to Dr. J. H. Conrad. 



16 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

3 combs, and he shall have said weavincr stool for two 
years . . and for this Jan Lensen sliall teach my son 
Leonard in one year the art of weaving, and Leonard 
shall be bound to weave faithfully during said year." On 
the 18th of June the little colony were in Rotterdam, 
whither they were accompanied by Jacob Telner, Dirck 
Sipman, and Jan Streypers, and there many of their 
business arrangements were completed. Telner con- 
veyed 2000 acres of land to the brothers Op den GraefF, 
and Sipman made Hermann Op den Graeff his attorney. 
Jan Streypers conveyed 100 acres to his brother Willem, 
and to Seimens and Keurlis each 200 acres. Bleikers 
and Lucken each bought 200 acres from Benjamin 
Furly, agent for the purchasers at Frankfort. At this 
time James Claypoole, a Quaker merchant in London, 
who had previously had business relations of some kind 
with Telner, was about to remove with his family to 
Pennsylvania, intending to sail in the Concord, Wm. 
Jeffries, master, a vessel of 500 tons burthen. Through 
him a passage "from London was engaged for them in the 
same vessel, which was expected to leave Gravesend on the 
6th of July, and the money was paid in advance.^ It is 
now ascertained definitely that eleven of these thirteen 
emigrants were from Crefeld, and the presumption that 
their two companions, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, 
came from the same city is consequently strong. This 
presumption is increased by the indications of relation- 
ship, and the fact that the wife of Jan Seimens was 
Mercken Williamsen Lucken. Fortunately, however, 
we are not wanting in evidence of a general character. 
Pastorius,^ after having an interview with Telner at Rot- 

* Letter-book cf James Claypoole in the Historical Society. 

* Christian Pastorins, a citizen of Warburg, was the father of 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 17 

terdam a few weeks earlier, accompanied by four ser- 
vants, who seem to have been Jacob Schumacher, Isaac 
Dilbeeck, George Wertmuller, and Koenradt Rutters, had 
gone to America representing both the purchasers at Frank- 
Martin Pastorius, assessor of the court at Erfurt, who married Bri- 
gitta, daughter of Christian Flinsberger of Muhlhausen. Their 
son, Melchior Adam, was born at Erfurt, Sept. 21st, 1624, and edu- 
cated at the University of AVuertzburg. He studied both law and 
theology, and having married Magdalena, daughter of Stephen Dietz 
and of Margaretha Fischer, and having been converted to the pro- 
testant faith, he settled at Windsheim, where he held several ofSces, 
and finally became elder burgomaster and judge. Francis Daniel 
Pastorius, the son of Melchior and Magdalena, was born at Somer- 
hausen, Sept. 26th, 1651. When he was seven years old his father 
removed to Windsheim, and there he was sent to school. Later he 
spent two years at the University of Strasburg, in 1672 went to 
the high school at Basle, and afterwards studied law at Jena. He 
was tboroughly familiar with the Greek, Latin, German, French, 
Dutch, English, and Italian tongues, and at the age of twenty-two 
publicly disputed in different languages upon law and philosophy. 
On the 24th of April, 1679, he went to Frankfort, and there began 
the practice of law ; but in June, 1680, he started with Johan Bona- 
ventura Von Rodeck, " a noble young spark," on a tour through 
Holland, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany, which oc- 
cupied over two years. On his return to Frankfort in November, 
1682, he heard from his friends the Pietists of the contemplated 
emigration to Pennsylvania, and with a sudden enthusiasm he de- 
termined to join them, or in his own words, "a strong desire came 
upon me to cross the seas with them, and there, after having ^een 
and experienced too much of European idleness, to lead with them 
a quiet and Christian life." Fie immediately began his prepara- 
tions by writing to his father to ask his consent and obtain some 
funds, and by sending his books to his brother. He sailed from 
London June 10th, 1683, and arrived in Philadelphia August 20th. 
His great learning and social position at home made him the most 
conspicuous person at Germantown. He married Nov. 26th, 1688, 
Ennecke Klosterman, and had two sons, John Samuel and Henry. 
He describes himself as " of a Melancholy Cholerick Complexion, 
and, therefore (juxta Culpepper, p. 194), gentle, given to Sobriety, 



18 HISTORICAL AND BIOQRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

fort and Crefeld. In his references to the places at which 
he stopped on his journey down the Rhine he nowhere 
mentions emigrants except at Orefeld, where he says : "I 
talked with Tunes Kunders and bis wife, Dirck, Her- 
mann, and Abraham Op den GraefF and many others, 
who six weeks later followed me."^ For some reason 

Solitary, Studious, doubtful, Shamefaced, timorous, pensive, con- 
stant and true in actions, of a slow wit, with obliviousness, &c.. 
If any does him wrong. 
He can't remember't long." 

From his father and other relations he received altogether 1263 
Eeichsthaler, of which he says, " Totpereunt cum tempore Nummi." 
He wrote punning poems in various languages, and a host of books, 
of which a few were printed, and many have been lost. The fol- 
lowing letter is characteristic : — 

" Dear Children John Samuel and Henry Pastorius: Though you 
are {Gerw.ano sanguine nati) of high Dutch Parents, yet remem- 
ber that your father was Naturalized, and y* born in an English 
Colony, Consequently each of you Anglus JVatus an Englishman 
by Birth. Therefore, it would be a shame for you if you should be 
ignorant of the English Tongue, the Tongue of your Countrymen ; 
but that you may learn the better I have left a Book for you both, 
and commend the same to your reiterated perusal. If you should not 
get much of y" Latin, nevertheless read y" the English part oftentimes 
OVER AND OVER AND OVER. And I assure you that Semper ali- 
quid hoerehit. For the Dripping of the house-eaves in Time maketh 
a hole in an hard stone. Non vi sed scepe cadendo, and it is very 
bad Cloath that by often dipiDing will take no Colour. 
Lectio lecia placet, decies repetita p)lacehit 
Quod Natura negat vobis Industria prcesiet. — F. D. P." 

Israel Pemberton, a pupil fourteen years old, on whom he had 
used the rod, wrote concerning him 13th of 6th mo. 1698: "The 
first time I saw him I told my father that I thought he would prove 
an angry master. He asked me why so : I told him I thought so by 
his nose, for which he called me a prating boy." 

He died Sept. 27th, 1719. 

^ Pastorius MS. cited by Seidensticker in the Deutsche Pionier, 
vol. ii., p. 142. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 19 

the emigrants were delayed between Rotterdam and Lon- 
don, and Claypoole was in great uneasiness for fear the 
vessel should be compelled to sail without them, and 
they should lose their passage money. He wrote sev- 
eral letters about them to Benjamin Furly at Rotterdam. 
June 19th he saj^s, " I am glad to hear the Crevill ffriends 
are coming," July 3d he says, " before I goe away wch 
now is like to be longer than we expected by reason of 
the Crevill friends not coming we are fain to loyter and 
keep the ship still at Blackwall upon one pretence or an- 
other ;" and July lOtli he says, " It troubles me much that 
the friends from Crevillt are not yet come."-^ As he had 
the names of the thirty-three persons, this contemporary 
evidence is very strong, and it would seem safe to con- 
clude that all of this pioneer band, which, with Pastorius, 
founded Germantown, came from Orefeld. Henry Mel- 
chior Muhlenberg says the first comers were platt-deutch 
from the neighborhood of Oleves.^ Despite the forebod- 
ings of Claypoole the emigrants reached London in time 
for the Concord, and they set sail westward on the 24th 
of J\i\y. While they are for the first time experiencing 
the dangers and trials of a voyage across the ocean, doubt- 
less sometimes lookins; back with reo-ret, but oftener wist- 
fully and wonderingly forward, let us return to inquire 
who these people were who were willing to abandon for- 
ever the old homes and old friends along the Rhine, and 
commence new lives with the wolf and the savage in the 
forests upon the shores of the Delaware. 

The origin of the sect of Mennonites is somewhat 
involved in obscurity. Their opponents, following Sleid- 
anus and other writers of the 16th century, have re- 

^ Letter Book of James Claypoole. 
'^ Hallescbe Nachrichten, p. 665. 



20 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

proached them with being an outgrowth of the Anabap- 
tists of Munster. On the contrary, their own historians, 
Mehrning, Van Braght, Schynn, Maatschoen, and Roosen, 
trace their theological and Hneal descent from the Wal- 
denses, some of whose communities are said to have ex- 
isted from the earHest Christian times, and who were 
able to maintain themselves in obscure parts, of Europe, 
against the power of Rome, in large numbers from the 
12th century downward. The subject has of recent 
years received thorough and philosophical treatment at 
the hands of S. Blaupot Ten Gate, a Dutch historian,^ 
The theory of the Waldensian origin is based mainly on 
a certain similarity in creed and church observances ; the 
fact that the Waldenses are known to have been numer- 
ous in those portions of Holland and Flanders where the 
Mennonites arose and throve, and to have afterward dis- 
appeared ; the ascertained descent of some Mennouite 
families from AValdenses ; and a marked similarity in 
habits and occupations. This last fact is especially inter- 
esting in our investigation, as will be hereafter seen. 
The Waldenses carried the art of weaving from Flan- 
ders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade 
as in many localities to have gone by the name of Tisser- 

^ Geschiedkundig Onderzoek naar den Waldenzischen oorsprong 
van de Nederlandsche Doopsgezinden. Amsterdam, 1844. 

A nearly contemporary authority, which seems to have escaped 
the observation of European investigators, is '' De vitis, sectis, et 
dogmatibus omnium Ilsereticorum, &c., per Gabrielem Prateolum 
Marcossium,'' published at Cologne in 1583, which says, p. 25 : 
" Est perniciosior etiam tertia qute quoniam a Catholocis legitime 
baptizatos rebaptizat, Anabaptistorum secta vocatur. De quo genera 
videiitur etiam fuisse IVatres Vualdenses ; quos et ipsos non it,a 
pridfm rebaptizasse constat, quamuis eorum nonnulli, nuper adeo, 
sicut ipsi in Apologia sua testantur, iterare Baptismum desierint; 
in multis tamen eos cum Anabaptistis conuenire certum est." 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 21 

ands, or weavers/ It is not improbable that the truth 
lies between the two theories of friend and foe, and that 
the Baptist movement which swept through Germany 
and the Netherlands in the early part of the 16th cen- 
tury gathered into its embrace many of these communi- 
ties of Waldenses. At the one extreme of this move- 
ment were Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean 
Matthys. and John of Leyden ; at the other were Menno 
Simons, and Dirck Philips. Between them stood Batten- 
burg and David Joris of Delft. The common ground of 
them all, and about the only ground which they had in 
common, was opposition to the baptism of infants. The 
first party became entangled in the politics of the time, 
and ran into the wildest excesses. They preached to the 
peasantry of Europe, trodden beneath the despotic heels 
of Church and State, that the kingdom of Christ upon 
earth was at hand, that all human authority ought to be 
resisted and overthrown, and all property be divided. 
After fighting many battles and causing untold commo- 
tion, they took possession of the city of Munster, and 
made John of Leyden a king. The pseudo-kingdom en- 
dured for more than a year of siege and riot, and then 
was crushed by the power of the State, and John of Ley- 
den was torn to pieces with red hot pincers, and his bones 
set aloft in an iron cage for a warning.'^ 

Menno Simons was born at the village of Witmarsum 
in Friesland, in the year 1492, and was educated for the 
priesthood, upon whose duties early in life he entered. 
The beheading of Sicke Snyder for rebaptism in the year 
1531 in his near neighborhood called his attention to the 
subject of infant baptism, and after a careful examination 

' Ten Gate's Onderzoek, p. 42. 

^ Catrou's Histoire des Anabaptistes, p. 462. 



22 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of the Bible and tlie writings of Luther and Zwinglius, 
he came to the conclusion there was no foundation for it 
in the Scriptures. At the request of a little community 
near him liolding like views he began to preach to them, 
and in 1536 formally severed his connection with the 
Church of Rome. Ere Ions; he beg-an to be recognized 
as the leader of the Doopsgezinde or Taufgesinnte, and 
gradually the sect assumed from him the name of Men- 
nonites. His first book was a dissertation against the 
errors and delusions in the teachings of John of Leyden, 
and after a convention held at Buckhold in Westphalia 
in 1538, at which Battenburg and David Joris were pre- 
sent, and Menno and Dirck Philips were represented, the 
influence of the» fanatical Anabaptists seems to have 
waned. ^ His entire works, published at Amsterdam in 
1681, make a folio volume of 642 pages. Luther and 
Calvin stayed their hands at a point where power and in- 
fluence would have been lost, but the Datch reformer, 
Menno, far in advance of his time, taught the complete 
severance of Church and State, and the principles of re- 
ligious liberty which have been embodied in our own 
federal constitution were first worked out in Holland.^ 
The Mennonites believed that no baptism was efficacious 
unless accompanied by repentance, and that the ceremony 
administered to infants was vain. They took not the 
sword and were entirely non-resistant.^ They swore 
not at all."^ They practiced the washing of the feet of 
the brethren,'' and made use of the ban or the avoidance 

^ Nippold's Life of David Joris. Roosen's Menno Simons, p. 32. 

■■^ Barclay's Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, pp. 78, 
676 ; Menno's " Exhortation to all in Authority," in his works. 
Funk's edition, vol. i. p. 75 ; vol. ii. p. £03. 

' Matthew xxvi. 52. ' Matthew v. 32 to 37. 

^ John xiii. 4, 17; I. Timothy v. 10. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWK. 23 

of those who were pertinaciously derelict/ In dress and 
speech they were plain, and in manners simple. Their 
.ecclesiastical enemies, even while burning them for their 
heresies, bore testimony to the purity of their lives, their 
thrift, frugality, and homely virtues.^ They were gen- 
erally husbandmen and artisans, and so many of them 
were weavers that, we are told by R-oosen, certain woven 
and knit fabrics were known as Mennonite goods.^ The 
shadow of John of Leyden, however, hung over them, 
the name of Anabaptist clung to them, and no sect, 
not even the early Christians, was ever more bitterly 
or persistently persecuted. There were put to death 
for this cause at Rotterdam 7 persons, Haarlem 10, 
the Hague 13, Cortrijk 20, Brugge 23, Amsterdam 
26, Ghent 103, and Antwerp 229, and in the last-named 
city there were 37 in 1571 and 37 in 1574, the last by 
fire."^ It was usual to burn the men and drown the 
wom^en. Occasionally some were buried alive, and the 
rack and like preliminary tortures were used to extort 
confessions, and get information concernino; others of the 
sect. Ydse Gaukes gives, in a letter written to his brother 
from prison, a graphic description of his own treatment. 
After telling that his hands were tied behind his back, 
he continues : " Then they drew me up about a foot from 
the ground and let me hang. I was in great pain, but I 
tried to be quiet. Nevertheless, I cried out three times, 

^ Matthew xviii. 17 ; I. Corinthians v. 9, 11 ; 11. Thes. iii. 14. 

^ Says Catrou, p. 259, " On ne peat disconvenir que des sectes de 
la sorte n'ayent ete remplies d'assez bonnes gens et assez reglees 
pour les moeurs." And page 103, " Leurs invectives centre le 
luxe, contre I'yvrognerie, et contre incontinence avoient je ne scai 
quoi de pathetique." 

^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 9. 

* Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Holland, etc., Ten Gate, p. 72. 



24 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and then was silent. They said that is only child's play, 
and letting nae down again they put me on a stool, but 
asked nae no questions, and said nothing to me. They 
fastened an iron bar to my feet with two chains, and hung 
on the bar three heavy weights. When they drew me up 
a^ain a Spaniard tried to hit me in the face with a chain, 
but he could not reach ; while I was hanging I struggled 
hard, and got one foot through the chain, but then all the 
weight was on one leg. They tried to fasten it again, 
but I fought with all my strength. That made them all 
laugh, but I was in great pain." He was afterward 
burned to death by a slow fire at Deventer, in May, 
1571.^ Their meetings were held in secret places, often 
in the middle of the night, and in order to prevent possi- 
ble exposure under the pressure of pain, they purposely 
avoided knowing the names of the brethren whom they 
met, and of the preachers who baptized them.^ A re- 
ward of 100 gold guilders was offered for Menno, male- 
factors were promised pardon if they should capture him,^ 
Tjaert Ryndertz was put on the wheel in 1539 for hav- 
ing given him shelter, and a house in which his wife and 
children had rested, unknown to its owner, was confis- 
cated. He was, as his followers fondly thought, miracu- 
lously protected however, died peacefully in 1559, and 
was buried in his own cabbage garden. The natural re- 
sult of this persecution was much dispersion. The pros- 
perous communities at Hamburg and Altona were founded 
by refugees, the first Mennonites in Prussia fled there 

^ Van Braght's Blutige Schauplatz oder Martyrer Spiegel. — 
Epbrata, 1748, vol. ii. p. 632. 

^ Van Braght, vol. ii. p. 468. 

' A copy of the proclamation may be seen in Ten Gate's Gescbie- 
denis der Doopsgeziuden in Friesland, etc., p. 63. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 25 

from the Netherlands, and others found their way up the 
Rhine. -^ Orefeld is chiefly noted for its manufactures of 
silk, linen, and other woven goods, and these manufac- 
tures were first established by persons fleeing from re- 
ligious intolerance. 

From the Mennonites sprang the general Baptist 
churches of England, the first of them having an eccle- 
siastical connection with the parent societies in Holland, 
and their organizers being Englishmen who, as has been 
discovered, were actual members of the Mennonite church 
at Amsterdam.^ It was for the benefit of these English- 
men that the well-known Confession of Faith of Hans de 
Ries and Lubbert Gerritz was written,'^ and according to 
the late Robert Barclay, whose valuable work bears every 
evidence of the most thorough and careful research, it was 
from association with these early Baptist teachers that 
George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, imbibed his 
views. Says Barclay : " We are compelled to view him 
as the unconscious exponent of the doctrine, practice, and 
discipline of the ancient and stricter party of the Dutch 
Mennonites."'* If this be correct, to the spread of Men- 
nonite teachings we owe the origin of the Quakers, and 

^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 5. Reiswitz und Waldzeck, p. 19. 

'■^ Barclay's Religioi^s Societies, pp. 72, 73, 95. 

^ The preface to that Confession, Amsterdam, 1686, says : " Ter 
cause, also daer eenige Engelsche uyt Engeland gevliicht ware, om 
de vryheyd der Religie alhier te genieten, en alsoo sy een schrifte- 
lijcke confessie (van de voornoemde) hebben begeert, want veele 
van hare gheselschap inde Duytsche Tale onervaren zijnde, het 
selfde niet en konde verstaen, ende als dan konde de ghene die de 
Tale beyde verstonde de andere onderrechten, het vvelche oock niet 
onvruchtbaer en is ghebleven, want na overlegh der saecke zijn sy 
met de voernoemde Gemeente vereenight." 

* P. 77. 

2 



26 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the settlement of Pennsylvania. The doctrine of the inner 
light was by no means a new one in Holland and Ger- 
many, and the dead letter of the Scriptures is a thought 
common to David Joris, Caspar Schwenckfeldt, and the 
modern Quaker. The similarity between the two sects 
has been manifest to all observers, and recognized by 
themselves. William Penn, writini!; to James Logan of 
some emigrants in 1709, says: 'Herewith comes the 
Palatines, whom use with tenderness and love, and fix 
them so that they may send over an agreeable character ; 
for they are a sober people, divers Mennonists, and will 
neither swear nor light. See that Guy has used them 
well."^ Thomas Chalkley, writing from Holland the 
same year, says : " There is a great people which they 
call Mennonists who are very near to truth, and the 
fields are white unto liarvest among that people spirit- 
ually speaking."""^ When Ames,'^ Caton, Stubbs, Penn, 
and others of the early Friends went to Holland and 
Germany, they were received witJi the utmost kindness 
by the Mennonites, which is in strong contrast with their 
treatment at the hands of the established churches. 

The strongest testimon}^ of this character, however, is 
given by Thomas Story, the recorder of deeds in Pennsyl- 
vania, who made a trip to Holland and Germany in 1715. 
There he preached in the Mennonite m^^eting houses at 
Hoorn, Holfert, Drachten, Goredyke, Heerveen, Jever, 
Oudeboone, Grow, Leeu warden, Dokkum, and Henleven, 
wliile at Malkwara no meeting was held because "a Per- 
son of note among the Menists being departed this life," 

' Penn Logan Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 354. 

- Works of Thomas Chalkley, Phila. 1749, p. 70. 

■' William Auios, an accession to Quakerism from the Baptists^ 
was the first to go to Holland and Germany, and it was he who 
made the convei'ts in Amsterdam and Krisheim. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 27 

<\nd none at Saardam because of " the chief of the Men- 
ists beinu' over at Amsterdam " These meetino-s were 
attended almost exclusively by Mennonites, and they enter- 
tained him at their houses. One of their preachers he 
describes as " convinced of truth," and of another he 
says that after a discourse of several hours about religion 
they "had no difference," Jacob Nordyke, of Harlin- 
gen, a " Menist and friendly man," accompanied the 
party on their journey, and when the wagon broke down 
near Oudeboone lie went ahead on foot to prepare a 
meeting. The climax of this staid good fellowship was 
capped, however, at Grow. Says Story in his journal : 
" Hemine Gosses, their preacher, came to us, and taking 
me by the hand he embraced me and saluted me with 
several kisses, which I readily answered, tor lie expressed 
much satisfaction before the people, and received us 
gladly, inviting us to take a dish of tea with him. 
He showed us his garden, and gave us of his grapes of 
several kinds, but first of all a dram lest we should take 
cold after the exercise of the meeting," and " treated us 
as if he had been a Friend, from which he is not far, hav- 
ing been as tender as any at the meeting," 

William Sewel, the historian, was a Mennonite, and it 
certainly was no accident that the first two Quaker his- 
tories were written in Holland.-^ It was among the Men- 
nonites they made their converts.' In fact transition 
between the two sects both ways was easy, Quakers 
became members of the Mennonite church at Crefeld'^ 
and at Haarlem,'* and in the reply which Peter Henrichs 
and Jacob Glaus of Amsterdam made in 1679 to a 
pamphlet by Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite preacher at 

^ Sewel and Gerhard Croese. " Sewel, Barclay, Seidensticker. 
■^ Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 66. * Story's Journal, p. 490. 



28 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Krisheira, they quote him as saying " that the so-called 
Quakers, especially here in the Palatinate, have fallen off 
anci gone out from the Mennonites."^ 

These were the people who, some as Mennonites," and 
others, perhaps, as recently converted Quakers, after be- 
ing unresistingly driven up and down the Rhine for a 
century and a half, were ready to come to the wilds of 
America. Of the six original purchasers Jacob Telner 
and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber are known to have been 
members of the Mennonite Church ; Govert Rerake,^ Jan- 
uary 14th, 1686, sold his land to Dirck Sipman, and had 
little to do with the emigration ; Sipman selected as his 
attorneys here at various times Hermann Op den Graeff, 
Hendrick Sellen, and Van Bebber, all of whom were 
Mennonites ; and Jan Streypers was represented also by 
Sellen, was a cousin of the Op den Graeffs, and was the 
uncle of Hermannus and Arnold Kuster, two of the most 
active of the early Pennsylvania members of that sect. 
Of the emigrants Dirck, Hermann, and Abraham Op den 
Graeff were Mennonites, and were grandsons of Hermann 
Op den Graeff, the delegate from Orefeld to the Council 

^ This rare and valuable pamphlet is in the library of A. H. 
Cassel. 

"^ In this connection the statement of Hortensius in his Histotre 
des Anahaptistes, Paris, 1695, is interesting. He says in the pre- 
face : " Car cette sorte de gens qu'on appelle aujourd bui Menno- 
nites ou Anahaptistes en Holande et ceux qui sent connus en 
Angleterre sous le nom de Koakres ou Trembleurs, qui sont par- 
tages en plus de cent sortes de Sectes, ne peuvent point conter 
d'autre origine que celle des Anabaptistes de Munster quoi qu'a 
present ils se tiennent beaucoup plus en repos, et qu'ils n'ayent 
aucune ambition pour le gouvernement ou I'admini.stration des 
affaires temporelles, et mesrae que le port ou I'usage de toute sortes 
d'armes soit entierement defendu parmi eux." 

* Johann Rcmke wa^^ the Mennonite preacher at Crefeld in 1752. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN, 29 

which met at Dordrecht in 1632, and adopted a Oonfee- 
sion of Faith/ Many of the others, as we have seen, 
were connected with the Op den Graeffs by family ties. 
Jan Lensen was a member of the Mennonite church here. 
Jan Lucken bears the same name as the engraver who 
illustrated the edition of Van Braght published in 1685, 
and others of the books of that church, and the Dutch 
Bible which he brought with him is a copy of the third 
edition of Nicolaes Biestkens, the first Bible pubHshed 
by the Mennonites.^ Lenart Arets, a follower of David 
Joris, was beheaded at Poeldyk in 1535. The name 
Tunes occurs frequently on the name lists of the Menno- 
nite preachers about the time of this emigration, and 
Hermann Tunes was a member of the first church in 
Pennsylvania. This evidence, good as far as it goes, but 
not complete, is strengthened by the statements of Men- 
nonite writers and others upon both sides of the Atlantic. 
Roosen tells us " William Penn had in the year 1683 in- 
vited the Mennonites to settle in Pennsylvania. Soon 
many from the Netherlands went over and settled in and 
about Germantown."^ Funk, in his account of the first 
church, says : " Upon an invitation from William Penn 
to our distressed forefathers in the faith it is said a num- 
ber of them emigrated either from Holland or the Pala- 
tinate, and settled in Germantown in 1683, and there 
•established the first church in America.""^ Rupp asserts 
that, " In Europe they had been sorely persecuted, and 

^ Scheuten geneal(>gy in the possessien of Miss Elizabeth Muller, 
of Crefeld. I am indebted for extracts from this valuable MS., 
which begins with the year 1562, to Frederick Muller, the cele- 
brated antiquary and bibliophile of Amsterdam. 

^ The Bible now belongs to Adam Lukens, of North Wales, 
Bucks Co., Pennsylvania. 

^ P. 60. ' Mennonite Familv Almanac for 1875. 



30 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

on the invitation of tlie liberal-minded William Penn 
they transported themselves and families into the pro- 
vince of Pennsylvania as early as 168B. Thosp who 
came that year and in 1698 settled in and about Ger- 
mantown."^ Says Haldeman : " Whether the first Tauf- 
gesinneten or Mennonites came from Holland or Switzer- 
land I have no certain information, but they came in the 
year 1683."^ Richard Townsend, an eminent Quaker 
preacher, who came over in the Welcome, and settled a 
mile from Germantown, calls them a "religious good peo- 
ple," but he does not say they were Friends, as he prob- 
ably would have done had the facts justified it.'^ Abra- 
ham, Dirck, and Hermann Op den GraefF, Lenart Arets, 
Abraham Tunes, and Jan Lensen were linen weavers, 
and in 1686 Jan Streypers wrote to his brother Willein 
inquiring " who has wove my yarns, how many ells long, 
and how broad the cloth made from it, and through what 
fineness of comb it has been through."* 

The pioneers had a pleasant voyage, and reached Phila- 
delphia on the 6th of October. In the language of Clay- 
poole, " The blessing of the Lord did attend us so that 
we had a very comfortable passage, and had our health 
all the way."^ Unto Johannes Bleikers a son Peter was 
born while at sea. Cold weather was approaching, and 
they had little time to waste in idleness or curiosity. On 
the 12th of the same month a warrant was issued to Pas- 
torius for 6000 acres " on behalf of the German and 
Dutch purchasers," on the 24th Thomas Fairman mea- 
sured oti" fourteen divisions of land, and the next day 

' History of Berks County, p. 423. 

'■^ Geschichte der Gemeinde Gottes, p. 55. 

•' Hazard's Register, vol. vi. 198. 

■' Deeds, Streper MSS. '" Claypoole letter-book. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWN. 3X 

meeting together in the cave of Pastorius they drew lots 
for the choice of location. Under the warrant 5350 acres 
were laid out May 2d, 1684, " having been allotted and 
shared out by the said Daniel Pastorius, as trustee for 
them, and by tlieir own consent to the German and 
Dutch purchasers after named, as their respective several 
and distinct dividends, whose names and quantities of the 
said land they and the said Daniel Pastorius did desire 
might be herein inserted and set down, viz. : The tirst 
purchasers of Frankfort, Germany, Jacobus Van de 
Walle 535, Jolian Jacob Schutz 428, Johan Wilhelm 
Uberfeld 107, Daniel Behagel 3561, George Strauss 
1783, Jan Laurens 535, Abraham Hasevoet 535, in all 
2675 acres of land. The first purchasers of Crefeld, in 
Germany, Jacob Telner 989, Jan Streypers 275, Dirck 
Sipman 588, Govert Remke 161, Lenert Arets 501, 
Jacob Isaacs 161, in all 2675 acres." In addition 200 
acres were laid out for Pastorius in his own right, and 
150 to Jurian Ilartsfelder, a stray Dutchman or German, 
who had been a deputy sheriff under Andross in 1676, 
and who now cast his lot in with the settlers at German- 
town.^ Immediately after the division in the cave of 
Pastorius they began to dig the cellars, and build the 
huts in wliich, not without much hardship, they spent 
the following winter. Thus commenced the settlement 
of Germantown. Pastorius tells us that some people 
making a pun upon the name called it Arrtientown, be- 
cause of their lack of supplies, and adds, " it could not 
be described, nor would it be believed bv comino- genera- 
tions in what want and need, and with what Christian 
contentment and persistent industry this Gerinantown- 

' Exemplification Record, vol. i. p. 51. It is also said that Hein- 
ricli Frey was here before the landing of Penn. 



OZ HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

.ship started."^ Willem Streypers wrote over to his 
brother Jan on the 20th of 2d mo. 1684, that he was 
already on Jan's lot to clear and sow it, and noake a 
dwelling, but that there was nothing in hand, and he 
mus': have a year's provision, to which in due time Jan 

replied by sending a " Box with 3 combs, and 3 , 

and 5 shirts and a small parcel with iron ware for a 
weaving stool," and telling him " to let Jan Lensen 
weave a piece of cloth to sell, and apply it to your use." 
In better spirits Willem wrote Oct. 22d, 1684 : I have 
been busv and made a brave dwellino; house, and under 
it a cellar fit to live in, and have so much grain, such as 
Indian Corn and Buckwheat that this winter I shall be 
better off than what I was last year."'^ 

Other emigrants ere long began to appear in the little 
town. Cornelis Bom, a Dutch baker, whom Claypoole 
mentions in association with Telner, and who bears the 
same name as a delegate from Schiedam to the Menno- 
nite convention at Dordrecht, arrived in Philadelphia be- 
fore Pastorius. David Scherkes, perhaps from Muhlheira 
on the Ruhr, and Walter Seimens and Isaac Jacobs Van 
Bebber, lioth from Crefeld, were in Germantown Nov. 
8th, 16S4. Van Bebber was a son of Jacob Isaacs Van 
Bebber. and was followed by his father and brother Mat- 
tiiias in 1687. Jacob Telner, the second of the six origi- 
nal Crefeld purchasers to cross the Atlantic, reached New 
York after a tedious voyage of twelve weeks' duration, 
and from there he wrote Dec. 12th, 1684, to Jan Laurens 
of Rotterdam, that liis wife and daughter were " in good 
health and fat," that he liad made atrip to Pennsylvania, 
which " lie loutul a beautiful land with a healthy attnos- 

' SeiJensticker'tj Pa.storiu.s in the Deutsche Pioneer, vol. ii. p. 17G. 
= Streper MSS. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMAKTOWN. 33 

pliere, excellent fountains and springs running through it, 
beautiful trees from which can be obtained better lire- 
wood than the turf of Holland," and that he intended to 
take his family there the following spring,^ He seems to 
have been the central figure of the whole emigration. 
As a merchant in Amsterdam his business was extensive. 
He had transactions with the Quakers in London, and 
friendly relations with some of the people in New York. 
One of the earliest to buy lands here, we find him meet- 
ing Pastorius immediately prior to the latter's departure, 
doubtless to give instructions, and later personally super- 
intending the emigration of the Colonists. During his 
thirteen years' residence in Germantown his relations 
both in a business and social way with the principal 
men in Philadelphia were apparenth' close and intimate. 
Penn wrote to Logan in 1703, " I have been much 
pressed by Jacob Telner concerning Rebecca Shippen's 
business in the tovvn,"^ and both Robert Turner and 
Samuel Carpenter acted as his attorneys. He and his 
daughter Susanna were present at the marriage of Francis 
Rawle and Martha Turner in 1689, and witnessed their 
certificate. The harmonious blending of the Mennonite 
and the Quaker is nowhere better shown than in the fact 
of his accompanying John Delavall on a preaching and 
proselytingtour to New England in 1692.'" He was the 
author of a " Treatise" in quarto mentioned l)y Pastorius, 

' Two letters in Dutch from Bom and Telner to Jan Laurens were 
printed in Rotterdam, in 1685. The only known copy is in the 
Moravian Archives at Bethlehem. 

■^ Penn Logan Correspondence, vol. i. p. 189. 

' Smith's History, Hazard's Register, vol. vi. p. 309. Smith 
adopts him as a Friend, but in his own letter of 1709. written while 
he was living among- the Quakers in England, he calls himself a 
Mennonite. 



34 HISTORICAL AND JJIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and extracts from his letters to Laurens were printed at 
Rotterdam in 1685.^ About 1692 he a})pears to liave 
published a paper in the controversy with George Keith 
charging the latter with " impious blasphemy and deny- 
ing the Lord that bought him."" He was one of the first 
burgesses of Germautown, the most extensive landholder 
there, and promised to give ground enough for the erection 
of a market liouse, a promise whicli we will presume he ful- 
filled. In 1698 he went to London, where he was living 
as a merchant as late as 1712, and from there in 1709 
he wrote to Rotterdam concerning the miseries of some 
emigrants, six of whom were Mennonites from the Pala- 
tinate, who had gone tliat far on their journey, and were 
unable to proceed. " The English Friends who are called 
Quakers," he says had given mateiial assistance." Doubt- 
less European research would throw much light on his 
career. He was baptized at the Mennonite church in 
Amsterdam March 29th, 1665. His only child Susanna 
married Albertus Brandt, a merchant of Germantown 
and Philadelphia, and after the death of her first husband 
in 1701 she married David Williams.'' After deductinii; 
the land laid out in Germantown, and the 2000 acres 
sold to the Op den Graefis. the bulk of his 5000 acres 
was taken up on the Skippack, in a track for many years 
known as " Telncn-'s Township."'' 

In 1684 also came Jan Willeinse Bockenogen, a Quaker 
cooper from Haarlem.® 

' The Treatise is described by Pastorius in the enumeration of 
liis library. MS. Hist. Society. 

^ A true Account of the Sence and Advice of the People called 
Quakers. 

•■' Dr. Scheffer's paper in the Pp^nn'a Magazine, vol. ii. p. 122. 

* Exemp. Record, vol. vii.p. 208. •' Exemp. Record, vol. viii.p. 360. 

" Among his descendants was Henry Armitt Brown, the orator. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWN. 35 

Oct. 12t!i, 1685, ia the " Francis and Dorothy" arrived 
Hans Peter Umstat from Crefeld, with his wife Barbara, 
his son John, and his daughters Anna Magaretta, and 
Eve ;^ Peter Schumacher with his son Peter, his daugh- 
ters Mary, Frances, and Gertrude, and his cousin Sarah ; 
Gerhard Hendricks with his wife Mary, his daughter 
Sarah and his servant Heinrich Frey, the last named 
from Altheim in Alsace : and Heinrich Buchholtz and 
his wife Mary. Peter Schumacher, an early Quaker con- 
vert from the Mennonites, is the first person definitely 
ascertained to have come from Krisheim, the little village 
in the Palatinate, to which so much prominence has been 
given. Fortunately we know under what auspices he ar- 
rived. By an agreement with Dirck Sipmao, of Crefeld, 
dated August 16th, 1685, he was to proceed with the 
first good wind to Pennsylvania, and there receive 200 
acres from Hermann Op den Graefi", on which he should 
erect a dwelling, and for which he should pay a rent of 
two rix dollars a year.^ Gerhard Henricks also had 
bought 200 acres from Sipman.^ He came from Kris- 
heim, and I am inclined to believe that his identity may 
be merged in that of Gerhard Hendricks Dewees. If so^ 
he was associated with the Op den Graeffs and Van Beb- 
bers, and was the grandson of Adrian Hendricks Dewees, 
a Hollander, who seems to have lived in Amsterdam.^ 
This identification, however, needs further investigation. 
Dewees bought land of Sipman, which his widow, Zytien, 
sold in 1701. The wife of Gerhard Hendricks in the 

The Bockenogens were Mennonite weavers, who fled to Haarlem 
because of persecution about 1578. 

' He brought over with him the family Bible of his father, 
Nicholas Umstat, which I have inherited through his daughter Eve. 
^ See his deed in Dutch in the Germantown book. 
'' Deed book E 4, vol. 7, p. 180. * Raths-Buch. 



36 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

court records is called 8yt)e. On the tax list of 1693 
there is a Gerhard Hendricks, but no Devvees, though the 
latter at that time was the owner of land. Hendricks 
after the Dutch manner called one son William Gerrits 
and another Lambert Gerrits, and both men, if they were 
two, died about the same time. Much confusion has re- 
sulted for a want of familiarity on the part of local his- 
torians with the Dutch habit of omitting the final or local 
appellation. Thus the Van Bebbers are frequently re- 
ferred to in contemporaneous records as Jacob Isaacs, 
Isaac Jacobs, and Matthias Jacobs, the Op den GraefFs 
as Dirck Isaacs, Abraham Isaacs^ and Hermann Isaacs ; 
and Van Burklow as Reynier Hermanns. In 1685 also 
came Heivert Papen, and on the 20th of March, 1686, 
Johannes Kassel. a weaver, and another Quaker convert 
from the Mennonites. from Krisheim, aged forty-seven 
years, with his children, Arnold, Peter, Elizabeth, Mary, 
and Sarah, both having purchased land from individual 
members of the Frankfort Company. About the same 
time Klas Tamsen arrived. In the vessel with Kassel 
was a widow, Sarah Shoemaker, from the Palatinate, and 
doubtless from Krisheim, with her children, George, Abra- 
ham, Barbara, Isaac, ^ Susanna, Elizabeth, and Benjamin. 
Among the Mennonite martyrs mentioned by Van Braght 
there are several bearing the name of Schoenmaker, and 
that there was a Dutch settlement in the neighborhood of 
Krisheim is certain. At Flomborn, a few miles distant, 
is a spring which the people of the vicinity still call the 

' He married Sarah, only daughter of Gerhard Hendricks. 
Their son Benjamin, and their grandson Samuel, were successively 
Mayors of Philadelphia, and a great-granddaughter was the wife of 
William Rawle. I am indebted for some of these facts to the kind- 
ness of W. Brooke Rawle, Esq. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 37 

" Hollander's Spring."-^ The Paniiebakkers went there 
at some renaote date from North Brabant in Holland. I 
have a Dutch medical work published in 1622 which be- 
longed to Johannes Kassel, many Dutch books from the 
same family are in the possession of that indefatigable 
antiquary, Abraham H. Cassel, and the deed of Peter 
Schumacher is in Dutch. The Kolbs, who came to Penn- 
sylvania later, were grandsons of Peter Schumacher, and 
were all earnest Mennonites. The Kassels brouQ-ht over 
with them many of the manuscripts of one of their family, 
Ylles Kassel, a Mennonite preacher at Krisheim, who was 
born before 1618, and died after 1681, and some of these 
papers are still preserved. The most interesting is a long 
poem in German rhyme, which describes vividly the con- 
dition of the country, and throws the strongest light upon 
the character of the people and the causes of the emigra- 
tion. The writer says that it was copied off with much 
pain and bodily suffering Nov. 28th, 1665, It begins : 
" Lord ! to Thee the thoughts of all hearts are known. 
Into Thy hands I commend my body and soul. When 
Thou lookest upon me with thy mercy all things are well 
with me. Thou hast stricken me with severe illness, which 
is a rod for my correction. Give me patience ajid resigna- 
tion. Forgive all my sins and wickedness. Let not Thy 
mercy forsake me. Lay not on me more than I can 
bear," and continues, " Lord God ! Protect me in this 
time of war and danger, that evil men may not do with 
me as they wish. Take me to a place where I may be 
concealed from them, free from such trials and cares. My 
wife and children too, that they may not come to shame 

^ I am indebted for this and other information to Herr Johannes 
Pfannebecker Geheimer Regierungs Rath (of Germany), living in 
Worm?, who, at the request of Dr. Seidensticker and myself, made 
an investigation at Krisheim. 



38 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

at their hands. Let all my dear friends find mercy from 
Thee." After noting a successful flight to Worms he goes 
on, " dear God and Lord ! to Thee be all thanks, honor, 
and praise for Thy mercy and pity, which Thou hast 
shown to me in this time. Thou hast protected me from 
evil men as from my heart I prayed Thee. Thou hast 
'led me in the right way so that I came to a place where 
I was concealed from such sorrows and cares. Thou has 
kept the way clear till I reached the city, while other 
people about were much robbed and plundered. I have 
found a place among people who show me much love and 
kindness . . . Gather us into Heaven of which I 
am unworthy, but still I have a faith that God will not 
drive me into the Devil's kingdom with such a host as that 
which now in this land with murder and robbery destroys 
many people in many places, and never once thinks how 
it may stand before God . . . Well is it known what 
misery, suffering, and danger are about in this land with 
robbing, plundering, murdering, and burning. Many a 
man is brought into pain and need, and abused even unto 
death. Many a beautiful home is destroyed. The clothes 
are torn from the backs of many people. Cattle and 
herds are »taken away. Much sorrow and complaint 
have been heard. The beehives are broken down, the 
wine spilled."^ 

Occasionally we catch a glimpse of the home life of 
the early dwellers at Germantown. Pastorius had no 
glass, and, therefore, he made windows for his house of 
oiled paper, and over the door he wrote : " Parva domus, 
arnica bonis, procul este profani," an inscription which 
much amused Penn. Willem Streypers in 1685 had two 
pair of leather breeches, two leather doublets, handker- 

^ These papers also belong to A. H. Cassel, liis descendant. 



THE SKTTLHMKNT OF GERMANTOWN. 39 

chiefs, stockings, and a new hat. Bom wrote to Rotter- 
dam Oct. 12tb, 1684, " I have here a shop of many kinds 
of goods, and edibles. Sometimes I ride out with mer- 
chandise, and sometimes bring something back, mostly 
from the Indians, and deal with them in many things. I 
have no regular servants except one negro, whom I bought. 
I have no rent or tax or fxcise to pay. I have a cow 
which gives plenty of milk, a horse to ride around, my 
pigs increase rapidly so that in th^ summer I had seven- 
teen when at first I had only two. I have many chickens 
and geese, and a garden, and shall next year have an 
orchard if I remain well, so that my wnfe and I are in 
good spirits " The first to die was Jan Seimens, whose 
widow was again about to marry in October, 1685.^ Bom 
died before 1689, and his daughter Agnes married Anthony 
Morris, the ancestor of the distinguished family of that 
name.^ In 1685 Wigard and Gerhard Levering came 
from Muhlheim on the Ruhr,^ a town also far down the 
Rhine near Holland, which, next to Crefeld, seems to 
have sent the largest number of emigrants. The follow- 
ing year a fire caused considerable loss, and a little church 
was built at German town. According to Seidensticker it 
was a Quaker meeting house, and he shows conclusively 
that before 1692 all of the original thirteen, except Jan 
Lensen, had in one way or another been associated with 
Vne s^uakers. In 1687 Arent Klincken arrived from 
Dalem in Holland, and Jan Streypers wrote: "I intend 
to come over myself," which intention he carried into 
effect before 1706, as at that date he signed a petition 
for naturalization.'^ All of the original Ciefeld pur- 

^ Pastorius' Beschreibung, Leipsic, 1700, p. 23, Streper MSS. 
- Ashmead MSS. ■' Jones' Levering Family. 

* Jan Streypers and his son-in-law, H. J. Van Aaken, met Penn 



40 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

chasers, therefore, came to Pennsylvania sooner or later, 
except Rerake and Sipman. He, however, returned to 
Europe, where he and Willem had an undivided inheri- 
tance at Kaldkirchen, and it was agreed between them 
that Jan should keep the whole of it, and Willem take 
the lands liere. The latter were 275 acres at German- 
town, 50 at Chestnut Hill, 275 at the Trappe, 4448 in 
Bucks County, together with 50 acres of Liberty Lands 
and three city lots, the measurement thus considerably 
overrunning his purchase. 

Another arrival of importance was that of Willem E-it- 
tinghuysen, a Meunoiiite minister, who with his two sons, 
Gerhard and Klaas, and a daughter, who later married 
Heivert Papen, came from Broicli in Holland. His fore- 

at Wesel in 1686, and brought liim from that place to Crefeld. Van 
Aaken seems to have been a Quaker Sept. 30th, 1699, on which 
day he wrote to Penn : " I understand that Derick Sypman uses for 
his Servis to you, our Magistrates at Meurs, which Magistrates 
offers their Service to you again. So it would be well that you Did 
Kyndly Desire them that they would Leave out of the high Dutch 
proclomation which is yearly published throughout y^ County of 
Meurs & at y® Court House at Crevel, that y® Quakers should have 
no meeting upon penalty, & in Case you ffinde freedom to Desire y* 
sd Magistrates at Meurs that they may petition our King William 
(as under whose name the sd proclomation is given forth) to leave 
out y'' word Quackers & to grant Leberty of Counsience, & if they 
should not optaine y'' same from the said King, that then you would 
be Constrained for the truth's Sake to Request our King William 
for the annulling of y* sd proclomation Concerning the quackers, 
yo"" answer to this p. next shall greatly oblige me. Especially if you 
would write to me in the Dutch or German tongue, god almayghty 
preserve you and yo' wife In soule and body. I myself have some 
thoughts to Come to you but by heavy burden of 8 Children, &c., 
I can hardly move, as also that I want bodyly Capacity to Clear 
Lands and IfliU tree?;, as also money to undertake something Ells." 
An English translation of this letter in the handwriting of Matthias 
Van Bebber is in the collection of Dr. W, Kent Gilbert. 



THE SETTLEMEKT OF QEEMANTOWN. 41 

fathers had long carried on the business of manufacturing 
paper at Arnheim, and in 1690 he built the first paper- 
mill in America on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek. 
There he made the paper used by William Bradford, the 
earliest printer in the mid lie colonies. It appears from 
a letter in the Mennonite Archives at Amsterdam that he 
endeavored to have the Confession of Faith translated 
into English and printed by Bradford, and that he died- 
in 1708 aged sixty-four years. ^ The erection of the 
paper-mill is likely to keep his memory green for many 
generations to come, and its value was fully appreciated, 
by his contemporaries. In a Description of Pennsyl- 
vania in verse by Richard Frame in 1692 we are told, 
"A paper-mill near Germantown does stand," and says 
the quaint Gabriel Thomas, six years later, "all sorts of 
very good paper are made in the German town." 

About 1687 came Jan Duplouvys, a Dutch baker, who 
was married by Friends ceremony to Weyntie Van Sanen 
in the presence of Telner and Bom, on the 3d of 3 mo. 
of that year ; and Dirck Keyser, a silk merchant of 
Amsterdam, and a Mennonite, connected by family ties 
with the leading Mennonites of that city, arrived in Ger- 
mantown in 1688 by way of New York. If we can rely 
on tradition the latter was a descendant of that Leonard 
Keyser who was burned to death at Scharding in 1527, 
and who, according to Ten Cate, was one of the Walden- 
ses.'^ 

There was a rustic murmur in the little burgh that year, 

^ Jones's Notes to Thomas on Printing. Barton'8 Liie of David 
Rittenhouse. Penn. Magazine, vol. ii. p. 120. The Mennonites 
had their Confession of Faith printed in English in Amsterdam in 
1712, and a reprint by Andrew Bradford in 1727, with an appen- 
dix, is the tirst book printed in Pennsylvania for the Germans. 

"^ See Pennypacker Reunion, p. 13. 

3 



42 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHIOAL SKETCHES. 

which time has shown to have been the echo of the great 
wave that rolls around the world. The event probably 
at that time produced no commotion, and attracted little 
attention. It may well be that the consciousness of hav- 
ing won immortality never dawned upon any of the par- 
ticipants, and yet a mighty nation will ever recognize it 
in time to come as one of the brightest pages in the early 
history of Pennsylvania. On the 18th day of April, 1688, 
Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck Op den Graeff, Francis Daniel 
Pastorius, and Abraham Op den Graeff sent to the Friends 
meeting the first public protest ever made on this conti- 
nent against the holding of slaves. A little rill there 
started which further on became an immense torrent, and 
whenever hereafter men trace analytically the causes 
which led to Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Appomattox they 
will begin with the tender consciences of the linen 
weavers and husbandmen of German town. 

The protest is as follows : — 

This is to y® Monthly Meeting held at Rigert Worrells. 

These are the reasons why we are against the traffick 
of mens-body as followeth : Is there any that would be 
done or handled at this manner? viz. to be sold or made 
a slave for all the time of his life ? How fearfuU & faint- 
hearted are many on sea when they see a strange vassel 
being afraid it should be a Turck, and they should be 
tacken and sold for Slaves in Turckey. Now what is 
this better done as Turcks doe? yea rather is it worse for 
them, wch say they are Christians for we hear, that y® 
most part of such Negers are brought heither against their 
will & consent, and that many of them are stollen. Now 
tho' they are black, we cannot conceive there is more 
liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white 
ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men, 



THE SETTLEMENT OF QERMANTOW.W 43 

licke as we will be done our vselves : mackirig no difference 
of what generation, descent, or Colour they are. And 
those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or pur- 
chase them, are they not all alicke ? Here is liberty of 
Conscience, wch is right & reasonable, here ought to be 
liekewise liberty of y** body, except of evildoers, wch is 
iin other case. But to bring men hither, or to robb and 
sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe 
there are many oppressed for Conscience sacke ; and here 
there are those oppressed wch are of a black Colour. And 
we, who know that men must not comitt adultery, some 
doe comitt adultery in others, separating wifes from their 
housbands, and giving them to others and some sell the 
children of those poor Creatures to other men. Oh ! doe 
consider well this things, you who doe it, if you would be 
done at this manner? and if it is done according Christi- 
anity? you surpass Holland & Germany in this thing. 
This mackes an ill report in all those Countries of Europe, 
where they hear off, that y® Quackers doe here handel 
men, Licke they handel there y*' Cattle ; and for that 
reason some have no mind or inclination to come hither. 
And who shall maintaine this your cause or plaid for it ? 
Truely we can not do so except you shall inform us better 
hereoff, viz. that christians have liberty to practise this 
things. Pray ! What thing in the world can be done 
worse towarts us then if men should robb or steal us away 
<fe sell us for slaves to strange Countries, separating hous- 
band from their wife & children. Being now this is not 
done at that manner we will be done at, therefore we con- 
tradict & are against this trafBck of men body. And we 
who profess that it is not lawfull to steal, must liekewise 
avoid to purchase such things as are stolen, but rather 
help to stop this robbing and stealing if possibel and such 
men ought to be delivred out of y® hands of y^ Robbers 



44 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and set free as well as in Europe. Then is Pensilvauia 
to have a good report, in stead it hath now a bad one for 
this sacke in other Countries. Especially whereas y® Eu- 
ropeans are desirous to know in what manner y'" Quackers 
doe rule in their Province & most of thern doe loock upon 
U8 with an envious eye. But if this is done well, what 
shall we say, is don evil ? 

If once these slaves (wcli they say are so wicked and 
stubbern men) should joint themselves, fight for their free- 
dom and handel their masters & inastrisses, as they did 
handel them before ; will these masters & mastrisses 
tacke the sword at hand & warr against these poor slaves, 
licke we are able to belive, some will not refuse to doe ? 
Or have these negers not as much right to fight for their 
freedom, as you have to keep them slaves? 

Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? and 
in case you find it to be good to handel these blacks at 
that manner, we desire & require you hereby lovingly 
that you may inforrae us herein, which at this time never 
was done, viz. that Christians have Liberty to do so, to 
the end we shall be satisfied in this point, & satisfie licke- 
wise our good friends & acquaintances in our natif Country, 
to whose it is a terrour or fairfuU thing that men should 
be handeld so in Pensilvania. 

This was is from our .mc ij itjuy meeting at Germantown 
hold y" 18 of the 2 month 1688 to be delivred to the 
monthly meeting at Richard Warrels. 

gerret hendericks 
deriek op de graeff 
Francis daniell Pastorius 
Abraham op den graef^ 

' The Friends at Geimaiitown, tliiough William Kite, have 
recently had a fac-^imile co})y of this protest made. Care has been 
taken to give it here exactly as it is in the original, as to language, 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 45 

The residents in 1689 not heretofore mentioned were 
Paul Wolff, a weaver from Fendern in Holstein near 
Hamburg, Jacob Jansen Klumpges, Cornelis Siverts, 
Hans Millan, Johan Silans, Dirck Van Kolk, Hermann 
Bora, Hendriek Sellen, Isaac Schnffer, Ennecke Kloster- 
man from Muhlheim on the Ruhr, Jan Doeden, and 
Andries fouplis. Of these, Siverts was a native of Fries- 
land, the home of Menno Simons.^ Sellen with his 
brother Dirck, were Mennonites from Crefeld, and Souplis 

•orthography, and punctuation. The disposition Avhich was made of 
it appears from these notes from the Friends records: "At our 
monthly meeting at Dublin y* 30 2 mo. 1688, we having inspected 
J* matter above mentioned & considered it we finde it so weighty 
that we think it not Expedient for us to meddle with it here, but 
do Rather comitt it to y® consideration of y*' Quarterly meeting, 
y*" tennor of it being nearly Related to y® truth, on behalfe of y' 
monthly meeting. signed, pr. Jo. Hart." 

" This above mentioned was Read in our Quarterly meeting at 
Philadelphia the 4 of y" 4 mo. '88, and was from thence recom- 
mended to the Yearly Meeting, and the above-said Derick and 
the other two mentioned therein, to present the same to y° above- 
said meeting, it being a thing of too great a weight for this meeting 
to determine. 

Signed by order of y" Meeting, 

Anthony Morris." 

At the yearly meeting held at Burlington the 5 day of 7 mo. 
1688. " A paper being here presented by some German Friends 
'Concerning the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of buying and Keep- 
ing of Negroes, It was adjudged not to be so proper for this Meeting 
to give a Positive Judgment in the case, It having so General a 
Relation to many other Parts, and, therefore, at present they for- 
bear it." 

The handwriting of the oi'iginal appears to be that of Pastorius. 
An efibrt has been made to take from the Quakers the credit of this 
important document, but the evidence that those who sent and those 
who received it regarded each other as being members of the same 
religious society seems to me conclusive. 

' Raths Buch. 



46 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

was admitted as a burghei- and denizen of the city of New 
York Sept. 17th, 1685, with a liuht to trade anywhere 
iu his majesty's dominions. Tlie origin of the others I 
have not been able to ascertain. Hendrick Sellen was 
very active in affairs at German town, according to Funk 
gave the ground for the Mennonite Church there, was a 
trustee of the churcli on the Skippack, and in 1698 made 
a trip to Crefekl, carrying back to the old home many 
business communications, and we may well suppose many 
messages of frijendship. ■ 

On the 14th of January, 1690, two thousand nine 
hundred and fifty acres north of Gerraantown were 
divided into three districts, and called Krisheim, Soramer- 
hausen, from the birth-place of Pastoriu^, and Crefeld. 

An effort at naturalization made iii 1691 adds to our 
list ol I'esidents Reynier IFermanns Van Burklow, Peter 
Klever, Anthony Loof, Paul Kastner, Andris Kramer, 
Jan Williams, Hermann op de Traj), Hendrick Kassel- 
berg, from Backersdorf in the county of Brugge, and Klas 
Jansen. The last two were Mennonites, Jansen being 
one of the earliest preachers. Op de Trap, or Trapman, 
as he is sometimes called, appears to have come from 
Muhlheim on the Ruhr, and was drowned at Philadelphia 
in 1693 Gisbert Wilhelms died the year before. 

Pastorius served in the Assembly in the years 1687 
and 1691, and Abraham Op den Graeff in the years 1689,. 
1690, and 1692, though they were both still aliens. 

Tile village had now become populous enough to war- 
rant a separate existence, and on May 31st, 1691, a charter 
of incorporation wks issued to Francis Daniel Pastorius, 
biulill"; Jacob Telner, Dirck Op den Graeff", Heimann Op 
den GraelF, and Thones Kunders, burgesses ; Abraham 
Op den Graeff", Jacol) Isaacs Van Bebbei-, Johannes Kassel, 
Heivert Pfipen, Hermann Bom, and Dirck Van Kolk, 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 47 

committeemen, with power to hold a court and a market, 
to admit citizens, to impose lines, and to make ordinances. 
The bailiff and first two burgesses were constituted justices 
of the peace/ The primitive Solons and Lycurguses of 
Germantown did not want their laws to go unheeded. 
Thev were not keen enouo-li to invent th^it convenient 
maxim Ignorantia legis neminem exeusai It was, there- 
fore, ordered that "On the 19tlj of 1st mo. in each year 
the people shall be called together, and the laws and ordi- 
nances read aloud to them."^ Oh ye modern legislators ! 
think how few must have been the statutes, and how 
plain the language in which they were written, in that 
happy community. 

As we have seen, the greater number of the first Orefeld 
emigrants were weavers. This industry increased so that 
Frame describes Germantown as a place — 

" Where lives High German people and Low Dutch 
Whose trade in weaving linnen cloth is much ; 
There grows the Flax as also you may know 
That from the same they do divide the tow ; " 

and Thomas says they made " very fine German Linen 
such as no Person of Quality need be ashamed to wear." 
When, therefore, Pastorius was called upon to devise a 
town seal, he selected a clover on one of whose leaves 
was a vine, on another a stalk of flax, and on the third a 
weaver's spool, with the motto, " Vinum, Linum, et 
Textrinum." This seal happily suggests the relations of 
the town with the far past, and it is a curious instance of 
the permanence of causes that these simple people, after 
the lapse of six centuries, and after beino; transplanted to a 
distance of thousands of miles, should still be pursuing the 
occupation of the Waldenses of Flanders. The corpora- 

' Penna. Archives, vol. i. p. 111. " Raths Buch 



48 HrSTORTCAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

tion was maintained until January 11th, 1707, but always 
with considerable difficulty in getting the offices filled. 
Siys Luher, " Th^y would do nothing but work and i)ray, 
and their mild consciences made them opposed to the 
swearing of oaths and courts, and would not suffer them 
to use harsh weapons against thieves and trespassers." 
Through conscientious scruples Arent Klincken declined 
to be burgess in 1695, Heivert Papen in 1701, Cornelis 
Siverts in 1702, and Paul Engle in 1703 ; Jan Lensen 
to be a committeeman in 1701, Arnold Kuster and Daniel 
Geissler in 1702 : Matteus Millan to be constable in 
1703; and in 1695 Albertus Brandt was fined for a 
failure to act as juryman, " having no other escape but 
that in court in Phila. he was wronged upon the account 
of a jury." New-comers were required to pay £1 for the 
right of citizenship, and the date of the conferment of this 
right doubtless approximates that of the arrival.^ 

In 1692 culminated the dissensions among the Quakers 
caused by George Keith, and the commotion extended to 
the community of Germantown. At a public meeting 
Keith called Dirck Op den GraefF an "impudent rascal," 
and since, as we have seen, the latter was a justice of the 
peace in the right of his position as a burgess it was 
looked upon as a flagrant attack upon the majesty of the 
law. Among those who signed the testimony of the 
yearly meeting at BurHngton 7th of 7th mo, 1692, 
against Keith were Paul Wolff, Paul Kastner, Francis 
Daniel Pastorius, Andries ]vraraer, Dirck Op den Graeff, 
and Arnold Kassel. The certificate from the Quarterly 
Meeting at Philadelphia, which Samuel Jennings bore 
with liiin to kondon in 1693, when he went to present 
the mntlor before tiio Yearly Meeting there, was signed 

' Ralhs Buch an<i Court Rec(M*l. 



THE SETTLEMKNT OF GKRMANTOWN. 49 

by Dirck Op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, Peter Schu- 
macher, nnd Caspar Hoedt. Pastorius wrote two pamph- 
lets in the controversy.^ On the other hand Abraham 
Op den Graeff, was one of five persons who, with Keith, 
issued the Appeal, for pubHshing which Wm. Bradford, 
the printer, was committed, and a testimony in favor of 
Keith was signed by Hermann Op den Graeff, Thomas 
Ruttei", Cornelis Siverts, David Scherkes, and Jacob 
Isaacs Van Bebber^ The last named furnishes us with 
another instance of one* known to liave been a Menno- 
nite acting with the Friends, and Sewel, the Quaker his- 
torian, says concerning Keith : " and seeing several Men- 
Bonites of the County of Meurs lived also in Penna, it 
was not much to be wondered that they who count it un- 
lawful for a Christian to bear the sword of the magis- 
tracy did stick to him." 

Caspar Hoedt, then a tailor in New York, married 
there 6th mo. 12th, 1686, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of 
Nicolaes De la Plaine and Susanna Cresson, who were 
French Huguenots. James De la Plaine, a relative and 
probably a son of Nicolaes, came to Germantown from 
New York prior to Aug. 28th, 1692, on which day he 
was married by Friends ceremony to Hannah Cock. 
Susanna, a daughter of Nicolaes, became the wife of 
Arnold Kassel 9th rao. 2.1, 1693.-' 

' The titles of these hitherto unknown pamphlets are : — 

I. " Ein Send Brielf Offenhertzigei- Liebsbezeugung an die so 
genannte Pietisten in Hoch Teutschland. 

Zu Amsterdam Gedruckt vor Jacob Claus l)uchhaendler, 1697." 

II. " Henry Bernhard Koster, William Davis, Thomas Rutter, 
and Thomas Bowyer, four Boasting Disputers of this World, 
Rebuked and Answered according to their Folly, which they them- 
selves have manifested in a late pamphlet, entitled Advice for all 
Professors and Writers.''^ — William Bradford, New York, 1697. 

* Potts Memorial, p. 394. ' Notes of Walter Cresson. 



50 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

A tax list made by order of the Assembly in 1693 
names the following additional residents, viz. : Johannes 
Pettinger, John Van de Woestyne, and Paulus Kuster. 
Kuster, a Mennonite, came from Crefeld with his sons 
Arnold, Joliannes, and Herman nus, and his wife Gertrude. 
She was a sister of Jan and Willein Streypers. 

In 1662, twenty years before the landing of Penu, the 
city of Amsterdam sent a little colony of twenty-five 
Mennonites to New Netherlands under the leadership of 
Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy, of Zi'erik Zee. They were to 
have power to make rules and laws for their own govern- 
ment, and were to be free from taxes and tenths for 
twenty years. Each man was loaned a hundred guilders 
to pay for his transportation. They settled at Horekill, 
on the Delaware, and tliere lived on peaceful terms with 
the Indians. The hand of fate, however, which so kindly 
sheltered Telner and Pastorius, fell heavily upon their 
forerunner Plockhoy. An evil day for this colony soon 
came. When Sir Robert Oarr took possession of the 
Delaware on behalf of the English he sent a boat in 
1664 to the Horekill, and his men utterly demolished the 
settlement, and destroyed and carried off all of the property, 
"even to a nailc." What became of the people has 
always been a mystery. History throws no light on the 
subject, and of contemporary documents there are none. 
In the year 1694 there came an old blind man and his 
wife to Germantown. His miserable condition awakened 
the tender sym})atines of the Mennonites there. They 
gave him the citizenship free of charge. They set apart for 
him at the end street of the village by Peter Klever's 
corner a lot twelve rods long and one rod broad, whereon 
to build a little house and make a garden, which should 
be his as long; as he and his wife should live. In front 
of it they planted a tree. Jan Doeden and Willem 



THE .SETTLEMENT OF GERMAKTOWN. 51 

R,ittinghuysen were appointed to take up " a free will 
ofFerino;," and to have the little house built. This is all 
we know, but it is surely a satisfaction to see a ray of 
sunlight thrown upon the brow of the helpless old man 
as he neared his grave. After thirty years of untracked 
wanderings on these wild shores, friends had come across 
the sea to give him a home at last. His name was Cor- 
nelis Plockhoy.^ 

On the 24th of June of the same year Johannes Kel- 
pius, Henry Bernhard Koster, Daniel Falkner, Daniel 
Lutke, Johannes Seelig, Ludwig Biderman, and about 
forty other Pietists and Chiliasts arrived in Germantown, 
and soon after settled on the Wissahickon, where they 
founded the Society of the " Woman in the Wilderness." 
The events in the strange life of Kelpius, the Hermit of 
the Wissahickon, have been fully told by Seiden sticker 
and Jones. Together with Johannes Jawert and Daniel 
Falkner he was appointed an attorney for the Frankfort 
Company in 1700, but he never acted. Falkner had more 
to do with the affairs at Germantown, being bailiff in 
1701, and in Montgomery County Falkner s 8wamp still 
preserves the remembrance of his name. In 1700 he 
went to Holland, where he published a small volume in 
German, giving information concerning the province, to 
which he soon returned.^ 

Ge(;rge Gottschalck from Lindau, Bodensee, Daniel 
Geissler, Christian Warner, and Martin Sell were in Ger- 
mantown in 1694, Levin Harberdinck in 1696, and in 
1698 Jan Linderman came from Mahlheim on the Ruhr. 
During the last year the riglit of citizenship was conferred 

' Raths Buch. Brodliead's History of New York, vol. i. p. 688. 

■^ Curieuse Nachricht von Pensylvania in Norden-America von 
Daniel Fulkiiern, Professore &c., Franckfurt und Leipzig, 1702. 



52 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

upon Jan Neuss, a Mennonite and silversmith/ Willein 
Hendricks, Frank Houfer, Paul Engle, whose name is on 
the oldest marked stone in the Mennonite graveyard on 
the Skippack under date of 1723, and Reynier Jansen. 
Thouirh Jansen has since become a man of note, abso- 
lutely nothing seems to have been known of his antece- 
<lents, and I will, therefore, give in detail such facts as I 
have been able to ascertain concerning him. On the 
21st of May, 1698, Cornelis Siverts, of Germantown, 
wishing to make some arrangements about land he had 
inlierited in Friesland, sent a power of attorney to Rey- 
nier Jansen, lace maker at Alkmaer in Holland. It is 
consequently manifest that Jansen had not then reached 
this country. On the 23d of Apiil, 1700, Benjamin 
Furly, of Rotterdam,, the agent of Penn at that city, gave 
a power of attorney to Daniel and Justus Falkner to act 
for him here. It was of no avail, however, because as 
appears from a confirmatory letter of July 28th, 1701, a 
previous power " to my loving friend Reynier Jansen," 
lace maker, had not been revoked, though no intimation 
had ever been received that use had been made of it. It 
seems then that between the dates of the Siverts and 
Furly powers Jansen had gone to America. On the 29th 
of November, 1698, Reynier Jansen, who afterward 
became the printer, bought of Thomas Tresse 20 acres of 
Liberty Lands here, and on' the 7th of February, 1698-9, 
the right of citizenship, as has been said, was conferred 
by the Germantown Court upon Reynier Jansen, lace 
maker. These events fix with some definiteness the date 
of his arrival. He must soon afterward have removed to 
Philadelphia, though retaining his associations with Ger- 

' Penn bought from him in 1704 a half-dozen silver spoons, 
which he presented to the children of Isaac Norris, while on a 
visit to the latter. — See Journal. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 5S 

raantown, because ten months later, Dec. 23d, 1699, he 
bought of Peter Klever 75 acres in the latter place by a 
deed in which he is described as a merchant of Philadel- 
phia. This land he as a printer sold to Daniel Geissler 
Oct. 20th, 1701. Since the book called " God's protect- 
ing providence, etc.," was printed in 1699 it must have 
been one of the earliest productions of his press, and the 
probabihties are that he began to print late in that year. 
Its appearance indicates an untrained printer, and a 
meagre font of type. He was the second printer in the 
middle colonies, and his books are so rare that a single 
specimen would probably bring at auction now more than 
the price for which he then sold his whole edition. He 
left a son, Stephen, in business in Amsterdam, whom he 
had apportioned there, and brought with him to this 
country two sons, Tiberius and Joseph, who after the 
Dutch manner assumed the name Reyniers, and two 
daughters, Imity, who married Matthias, son of Hans 
Millan, of Germantown, and Alice, who married John 
Piggot. His career as a printer was very brief. He 
died about March 1st, 1706, leaving personal property 
valued at £226 Is. 8d., among which was included "a 
p'cell of Books from Wm. Bradford £4 2s. Od."^ We 
find among the residents in 1699 Heinrich Pannebecker, 
the first German surveyor in the province, and Evert In 
den HofFen from Muhlheim on the Ruhr, with Hermann, 
Gerhard, Peter, and Annecke, who were doubtless his 
children, some of whom are buried in the Mennonite 
graveyard on the Skippack. 

Four families, members of the Mennonite Church at 
Hamburg, Harmen Karsdorp and family, Claes Berends 

' Eatlis Buch. Exemp. Record, vol. vi. p. 235. Deed Book.E 
7, p. 560. Germantowu Book, pp 187, 188. Will Book C, p. 22. 



54 HISTORICAL A^D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and family, including his father-in-law, CorneHus Claessen, 
Isaac Van Sintern and family, and Paul Roosen and 
wife, and two single persons, Heinrich Van Sintern and 
the widow Trientje Harmens started for Pennsylvania 
March 5th, 1700, and a few months later at least four of 
them were here.^ Isaac Van Sintern was a great-grand- 
son of Jan de Voss, a burgomaster at Hanschooten, in 
Flanders, about 1550, a genealogy of whose descendants, 
including many American Mennonites, was prepared in 
Holland over a hundred years ago. In 1700 also came 
George Muller and Justus Falkner, a brother of Daniel, 
and the first Lutheran preacher in the province. Among 
the residents in 1700 were Isaac Karsdorp and Arnold 
Van Vossen, Mennonites, Richard Van der Werf, Dirck 
Jansen, who married Margaret Millan, and Sebastian 
Bartlesen ; in 1701 Heinrich Lorentz and Christopher 
Schlegel : in 1702 Dirck Jansen, an unmarried man from 
Bergerland, working for Johannes Kuster, Ludwig Chris- 
tian Sprogell, a bachelor from Holland, and brother of 
that John Henry Sprogell, who a few years later brought 
an ejectment against Pastorius, and feed all the lawyers 
of the province Marieke Speikerman, Johannes Reben- 
stock, Philip Christian Zimmerman, Michael Renberg 
wi-h his sons Dirck and Wilhelm, from Muhlheim. on the 
Ruhr, Peter Bun, Isaac Petersen and Jacob Gerritz Holtz- 
hooven, both from Guelderland in Holland, Heinrich 
Tibben, Willem Hosters, a Mennonite weaver from Ore- 
feld, Jacob Claessen Arents, from Amsterdam, Jan Krey, 
Johann Conrad Cotweis, who was an interpreter in New 
York in 1709, and Jacob Gaetschalck, a Mennonite 
preacher; and in 1703 Anthony Gerckes, Barnt Hen- 
dricks, Hans Heinrich Meels, Simon Andrews, Hermann 

' Mennonitische Blatter, Hamburg. 



THE SpyrXLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 55 

Dors,^ and Cornelius Tyson. The last two appear to have 
come from Crefeld, and over Tyson, who died in 1716, 
PasLorius erected in Axe's graveyard at Germantown 
what is, so far as I know, the oldest existing tombstone 
to the memory of a German in Pennsylvania.'^ 

On the 28th of June, 1701, a tax was laid for the build- 
ing of a prison, erection of a market, and other objects 
for the public good. As in all communities, the prison 
preceded the school-house, but the interval was not long. 
Dec. 30th of that year " it was found good to start a 
school here in Germantown," and Arent Klincken, Paul 
Wollf, and Peter Schumacher, Jr., were appointed over- 
seers to collect subscriptions and arrange with a school 
teacher. Pastorius was the first pedagogue. As early as 
January 25th, 1694-5, it was ordered that stocks should 
be put up for the punishment of evildoers. We might, 
perhaps, infer that they were little used from the fact 
that, in June, 1702, James De la Plaine was ordered to 
remove the old iron from the. rotten stocks and take care 
of it, but alas! Dec. 31st. 1703, we find that "Peter 
Schumacher and Isaac Schumacher shall arrange with 
workmen that a prison house and stocks be put up as 
soon as possible."^ 

^ " One Herman Dorst near Germantown, a Batchelor past 80 
Years of Age, who for a long time lived in a House by himself, on 
the 14th Instant there dyed by himself." — American Weekly Mer- 
cury, October 18th, 1739. 

^ It bears the following inscription : 
" Obijt Meiy 9 1716 

Cornelis Tiesen 

Salic sin de doon 

Die in den Here sterve 

Theilric is haer Kroon 

Tgloriric haer erve." 
' Raths Buch. 



56 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Feb. 10th, 1702-3, Arnokl Van Vossen delivered to 
Jan Neiiss on behalf of the Mennonites a deed for three 
square perches of land for a church, which, however, was 
not built until six years h^ter. 

In 1702 began the settlement on the Skippack. This 
first outgrowth of Germantown also had its origin at 
Crefeld, and the history of the Ci'efeld purchase would 
not be complete without some reference to it. As we 
have seen, of the 1000 acres bought by Govert Remke 
161 acres were laid out at Germantown. The balance he 
sold in 1686 to Dirck Sipman. Of Sipraan's own pur- 
chase of 5000 acres, 588 acres were laid out at German- 
town, and all that remained of the 6000 acres he sold in 
1698 to Matthias Van Bebber, who, getting in addition, 
500 acres allowance, and 415 acres by purchase, had the 
whole tract of 6166 acres located by patent Feb, 22d, 
1702, on the Skippack. It was in the present Perkiomen 
Township, Montgomery County, and adjoined Edward 
Lane and William Harmer, near what is now the village 
of I^vansburg.^ For the next half century at least it was 
known as Bebber's Township, or Bebber's Town, and the 
name being often met with in the Germantown records 
has been a source of apparently hopeless confusion to our 
local historians. Van Bebber immediately began to 
colonize it, the most of the settlers being Mennonites. 
Among these settlers were Heinrich Pannebecker, 
Johannes Kuster, Johannes Umstat, Klas Jansen, and 
Jan Krey in 1702; John Jacobs in 1704; John New- 
berry, Thomas Wiseman, Edward Beer, Gerhard and 
Hermann In de Hotien, Dirck and William Kenberg in 
1706 ; William and Cornelius Dewees, Hermann us Kuster, 
Christopher Zimmerman, Johannes Scholl, and Daniel 

' Exemj . Recoid, vol. i. p. 470. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. 57 

Desmond in 1708 ; Jacob, Johannes, and Martin Kolb, 
Mennonite weavers from Wolfsheim in the Palatinate, 
and Andrew Strayer in 1709 ; Solomon Dubois, from 
Ulster County, New York, in 1716 ; Paul Fried in 1727 ; 
and in the last year the unsold balance of the tract passed 
into the hands of Pannebecker. Van Bebber gave 100 
acres for a Mennonite church, which was built about 1725, 
the trustees being Hendrick Sellen, Hermannus Kuster, 
Klas Jansen, Martin Kolb, Henry Kolb, Jacob Kolb, and 
Michael Ziegler. 

The Van Bebbers were undoubtedly men of standing, 
ability, enterprise, and means. The father, Jacob Isaacs, 
moved into Philadelphia before 1698, being described as 
a merchant in High street, and died there before 1711/ 
Matthias, who is frequently mentioned by James Logan, 
made a trip to Holland in 1701, witnessing there Benja- 
min Furly's power of attorney July 28th, and had re- 
turned to Philadelphia before April 13th, 1702. He 
remained in that city until 1704, when he and his elder 
brother, Isaac Jacobs, accompanied by Reynier Hermanns 
Van Burklow, a son-in-law of Peter Schumacher, and 
possibly others, removed to Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, 
Maryland. There he was a justice of the peace, and is 
described in the deeds as a merchant and a gentleir;an. 
Their descendants, like many others, soon fell away from 
the simple habits and strict creed of their fathers ; the 
Van Bebbers of Maryland have been distinguished in all 
the wars and at the bar ; and at the Falls of the Kanawha, 
Van Bebber's rock, a crag jutting out at a great height 
over the river, still preserves the memory and recalls the 

^ He had three grandsons named Jacob, one of whom was doubt- 
less the Jacob Van Bebber who became Judge of the Supreme Court 
of Delaware Nov. 27th, 1764. 



58 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

-exploits of one of the most daring Indian fighters in 
Western Virginia. 

I have now gone over two decades of the earliest 
history of Germantown. It has been my effort to give 
the names of all those who arrived within that time, and 
■as fully as could be ascertained the dates of their arrival 
and the places from which they came, believing that in 
this way the most satisfactory information will be con- 
veyed to those interested in them as individuals, and the 
clearest light thrown on the character of the emigration. 
The facts so collected and grouped seem to me to warrant 
the conclusion I have formed that Germantown was sub- 
stantially a settlement of people from the lower Rhine 
regions of Germany and from Holland, and that in the 
main they were the offspring of that Christian sect, which, 
more than any other, has been a wanderer,^ which, en- 
deavoring to carr)'' the injunctions of the New Testament 
into the affairs of daily life, had no defence against almost 
incredible persecutions except flight, and which to-day is 
sending thousands of its followers to the Mississippi and 
the far West after they have in a vain quest traversed 
Europe from the Rhine to the Volga.^ 

^ Says Loher in his Geschichie und Zusidnde der Deutschen in 
A'me)-ika,Y>- 35, " As tlie true pilgrims upon earth going from place 
to place in the hope to find quiet and rest appear the Mennonites. 
They were the most important among the German pioneers in North 
America." 

* In the compilation of this article I have been especially indebted 
to Dr. J. G. De Hoop SchefFer, of the College at Amsterdam, for 
European researches, to Prof. Oswald Seidensticker, of the University 
of Pennsylvania, whose careful investigations I have used freely, 
and to Abraham H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., whose valuable 
library, it is, perhaps, not too much to say, is the only place in 
which the history of the Germans of Pennsylvania can be found. 
In giving the orthography of proper names I have, as far as practi- 
cable, followed autographs. 



DAVID RITTENEOUSE, 



f 

THE 



American Astronomer. 



From Harper's Monthly, for May, 1882. 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE,' 



There have been very few men, even among those pos- 
sessed of extraordinary talents, who have been so entirely 
unskilled in the arts that attract popular attention, and 
have nevertheless attained to such eminence during 
their own lives, as did David Rittenhouse. The people 
of provincial Pennsylvania fully believed they had found 
among themselves in the farmer's lad of the Wissahickon 
one upon whom the divine light of genius had fallen, and 
they came to him with offerings of homage, as well as of 
pounds, shillings and pence, perhaps all the more willingly 
because he shrank from the honor with an appearance of 
shyness, if not of timidity. His career more nearly 
resembled that of Franklin than that of any other of his 
contemporaries. Both began life in an. obscure way and 
under adverse circumstances ; the fame of both as philoso- 
phers and men of science extended over the world ; both 
were drawn into the politics of their day, and living in 
the same city, and being of the same way of thought, bore 

^ The principal authorities consulted and used in the preparation 
of this paper were Barton's Life, Renwick's Life, Rush's Memoir, 
Colonial Records and Archives, Votes of Assembly, Sargent's 
Loyalist Poetry, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pennsylvania Packet, The 
Chronicle, Jacobs MSS., Jefferson's Works, Adams' Works, Miller's 
Retrospect, Life and Times of Dr. William Smith, Rittenhouse's 
Oration, Du Simitiere Papers, Accounts of Pennsylvania, Graydon's 
Memoirs, Life of Judge Henry, Journals of Congress, Proceedings 
of the American Philosophical Society, Columbian Magazine, MS. 
Minutes of the Democratic Society, and the Portfolio. 



62 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

a conspicuous part in the Revolutionary struggle ; and 
each at the time of his death was president of that learned 
society which had afforded them many of their opportu- 
nities. 

Here, however, the parallel ends. Rittenhouee was 
more of a scientist, and Franklin more of a politician. 
With the boldness which comes of strength, blended with 
a sufficiency of shrewdness, Franklin went out into the 
world knowing there was much in it he wanted, and 
determined to get what he could. Despite of his admir- 
able talents, his knowledge of men and affairs, his 
sagacious forecast of the future, and his magnificent work 
in various fields, he had many of the characteristics of an 
adventurer. In scanning the events of his life we cannot 
help but wish that as an apprentice he had not run away 
from hia master, that his relations with women had never 
become the subject of conversation, that he had given 
more credit to Kinnersley for his electrical experiments, 
and that he had not united with the Quakers while they 
were in power, or had remained with them after they 
lost it. Rittenhouse, on the other hand, was altogether 
clean, simple, and pure, and in the supreme event of his 
life, the observation of the transit of Venus, after making 
the instruments, noting the contacts, and calculating the 
parallax, he left for his colleague. Dr. Smith, the prepara- 
tion of the report for publication. While, therefore, it 
may well be that through lack of aggressiveness or 
through overnicety he failed to gather all that he might have 
secured, we approach him with full faith that whatever 
he did was his own work, and whatever he gained 
belonged to him. 

He came of good ancestry. His paternal forefathers 
had long been paper-makers in the city of Arnheim, in 
Holland, and there belonged to the Mennonites — a relig- 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. b'S 

ious sect wliieli in creed and observances the Quakers 
much resemble, and which, according to some authorities, 
they have followed. 

The Mennonites call themselves "Defenseless Chris- 
tians," being strictly opposed to all warfare, and during the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they suffered terribly 
at the stake and by other methods of persecution. It was 
of Dirck Willems, a Mennonite burned in 1569 for having- 
been rebaptized and holding meetings in his house, that 
Motley tells a pathetic story, copied from Van Braght. 
To escape threatened capture he fled across a lake covered 
with thin ice. One of his pursuers, more eager than 
wise, followed, and breakino; through was unable to> 
extricate himself. Willems, seeing the danger of his 
adversary, returned and assisted him to the shore, when 
the base wretch, with unequalled ingratitude, arrested his 
rescuer and hurried him away to prison. There were 
very nearly as many martyrs among the Mennonites in 
the city of Antwerp alone as there were Protestants 
burned to death in England during the whole reign of 

DO O 

bloody Mary. 

Willem Rittinghuysen, the first Mennonfite preacher in 
Pennsylvania, came with his family and others of the 
sect to Germantown in 1688, and on a branch of the 
Wissahickon Creek, in Roxborough Township, built in 
1690, the earliest paper mill in America. It is with ref- 
erence to this mill that Gabriel Thomas, a quaint old 
chronicler of the seventeenth century, says, "All sorts of 
very good paper are made in the German Town," and it 
supplied the paper used by William Bradford, the first 
printer in Pennsylvania, as well as the first in New York. 
Here, on the 8th of April, 1732, David Rittenhouse, a 
great-grandson of the emigrant, was born. His mother^ 
Elizabeth Williams, was the daughter of Evan Williams^ 



64: HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

a native of Wales, and probably one of tlio Quaker con- 
verts who came from tliat country and settled a nnml)er 
of townships in Pennsylvania. When he was three years 
old, his father, Matthias, removed with his family to a 
farm in Norriton, now Montgomery County, and natu- 
rally enough he determined that David, the oldest son, 
shouhi follow the same pursuit. As soon, therefore, as he 
was strong enough to be of assistance, he was put to the 
ordinary farm-work, and he ploughed and harrowed, 
sowed and reaped, like all the boys by whom he was 
surrounded. His tastes, however, ran in another direction, 
and one of those occurrences which are sometimes called 
accidents gave him an opportunity to gratify them. An 
uncle, who was a carpenter, died, leaving a chest of tools, 
and among them a few books containing the elements of 
arithmetic and geometry, and some mathematical calcula- 
tions. These things, valueless to every one else, became 
a treasure to David, then about twelve years old, and 
they seem to have determined the bent of his life. The 
handles of his plough, and even the fences around the 
fields, he covered with mathematical calculations. At 
the age of eight he made a complete water-mill in minia- 
ture. At seventeen he made a wooden clock, and after- 
ward one in metal. Having thus tested his ability in an 
art in which he had never received any instruction, he 
secured from his somewhat reluctant father money enough 
to buy in Philadelphia the necessary tools, and after 
building a shop by the roadside, set up in business as a 
clock and mathematical instrument maker. His days 
were given to labor at his chosen trade, and his nights to 
study. By too close application he injured his health, 
contracting an afleclion of the lungs, attended with great 
})ain, that clung to hin:i all of his life, and seriously inter- 
fered with his writing, but he solved the most abstruse 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 65 

mathematical and astronomical problems, discovering for 
himself the method of fluxions. For a long time he 
boHeved himself its originator, being unaware of the 
controversy between Newton and Leibnitz for that great 
honor. " What a mind was here!" said Dr. Benjamin 
Kush, later, in a burst of enthusiastic admiration. 
" Without literary friends or society, and with but two or 
three books, he became, before he had reached his four- 
and-twentieth year, the rival of two of the greatest 
mathematicians of Europe." 

He mastered the Principia of Newton in an English 
translation, and became so engrossed in the study of 
optics that he wrote of himself in 1756, during the French 
and Indian war, that should the enemy invade his neigh- 
borhootl, he would probably be slain making a telescope, 
as was Archimedes while tracing geometrical figures on 
the sand. In 1751, the Rev. Thomas Barton, of Lancas- 
ter County, an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin, who 
afterward married the sister of Eittenhouse, and became 
a professor in the University of Pennsylvania, went to 
Norriton to teach school, and making the acquaintance of 
the young philosopher and clockmaker, they became warm 
friends. Barton supplied him with books from which he 
obtained a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, 
and two years later brought to him from Europe a num- 
ber of scientific works. Though his clocks had become 
celebrated for their accuracy, and he had obtained a local 
reputation for astronomical information, it seems to have 
been through Barton that the attention of men of learning 
was first drawn to him. Among these were Dr. Wilham 
Smith, provost of the University, John Lukens, surveyor- 
general (another Pennsylvania Dutchman, whose direct 
paternal ancestor, Jan Lucken, settled in Germantown in 
1683), and Richard Peters, provincial secretary. Through 



66 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKS. 

the last-named he was called upon in 1763 to perform 
his first public service, and one of very serious importance. 
It was provided in an agreement between the Penns and 
Lord Baltimore, settling the disputed boundary of their 
respective provinces, that a circle should be drawn with a 
radius of twelve miles around the town of Newcastle. 
With instruments of his own manufacture, Rittenhouse 
laid out this circle topographically, and alone he made a 
number of tedious and intricate calculations in such a 
satisfactory manner that he was tendered extra compen- 
sation. The astronomers Mason and Dixon, furnished 
with the best instruments for the purpose that could be 
made in England, accepted Rittenhouse's circle without 
change when, in 1768, they completed their famous line, 
which for so many years divided the Free from the Slave 
States. The point where the forty-first degree of latitude, 
the northern limit of New Jersey, reaches the Hudson, 
was fixed by Rittenhouse at the request of a commission 
appointed by New York and New Jersey, in 1769, and 
in this peaceful way, by an appeal to the telescope rather 
than ordnance, were settled between adjacent independent 
States, questions which in other lands have frequently led 
to sanguinary wars. On the 20th of February, 1766, he 
married Eleanor, daughter of Bernard Colston, a Quaker- 
ess, and the following year the University of Pennsyl- 
vania conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of 
Arts, because, as was said by the provost, of his improve- 
ment by the felicity of natural genius in mechanics, 
mathematics and astronomy. 

Very early in his career his attention was drawn to 
the variations in the oscillations of the pendulum, caused 
by the expansion and contraction of the material of which 
it is made, and appreciating the importance of an accurate 
chronometer, he devised a novel and satisfactory plan of 



DAVID RITTEN HOUSE, 67 

compensation by attaching to the pendulum a bent tube 
of glass, partially filled with alcohol and mercury. In 
1767 he wrote a paper for the Pennsylvania Gazette upon 
the famous problem of Archimedes, and made soma 
experiments upon the compressibility of water, reaching 
the conclusion, notwithstanding the tests of the Florentine 
Academy, that it was compressible. The same year he 
made a thermometer based upon the principle of the 
expansion and contraction of metals. An index moved 
upon a flat surface over a semicircle, which was graduated 
according to the Fahrenheit degrees of heat. During the 
present century Breguet has obtained much reputation by 
inventing anew this forgotten instrument. 

A greater mechanical design was, however, now in con- 
templation than any he had before undertaken. He 
conceived the idea of endeavoring to represent by ma- 
chinery the planetary system. Similar attempts [lad 
previously been made, but all had represented the plane- 
tary movements by circles, being mere approximations, 
and none were able to indicate the astronomical phenomena 
at any particular time. The production of Rowley, a de- 
fective machine, giving the movement of only two heavenly 
bodies, was bought by George I. for a thousand guineas. 
Rittenhouse determined to construct an instrument not 
simply to gratify the curious, but which would be of 
practical value to the student and professor of astronomy. 
After thiee years of faithful labor, in the course of which, 
refusing to be guided by the astronomical tables already- 
prepared, he made for himself the calculations of all the 
movements required in this delicate and elaborate piece 
of mechanism, he couipleted, in 1770, his celebrated orrery. 
Around a brass sun revolved ivory or brass planets in 
elliptical orbits properly inclined toward each other, and 
with velocities varying as they approached their aphelia 



68 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

or perihelia. Jupiter and his satellites, Saturn with his 
rings, the moon and her phases, and the exact time, quan- 
tity, and duration of her eclipses, the eclipses of the sun 
and their appearance at any particular place on the earth, 
were all accurately displayed in miniature. The relative 
situations of the members of the solar system at any 
period of time for five thousand years backward or for- 
ward could be shown in a moment. It is not difficult to 
appreciate the enthusiasm with which this proof of a rare 
genius was received more than a century ago, but it is 
entertaining to witness the expression of it. 

" A most beautiful machine .... It exhibits 
almost every motion in the astronomical world," wrote 
John Adams, who was always a little cautious about prais- 
ing the work of other people. Samuel Miller, D. D., in his 
Retrospect, said : "But among all tlie contrivances which 
have beea executed by modern talents, the machine in- 
vented by our illustrious countryman Dr. David Ritten- 
house, and modestly called by liim an orrery, after the 
production of Graham, is by far the most curious and 
valuable whether we consider its beautiful and ingenious 
structure, or the extent and accuracy with which it dis- 
plays the celestial phenomena." 

" There is not the like in Europe," said Dr. Gordon, 
the English historian : and Dr. Morse, the geographer, 
added, anticipating what has actually occurred ; " Every 
combination of machinery may be expected from a country 
a native son of which, reaching this inestimable object in 
its highest point, has epitomized the motions of the spheres 
that roll throughout the universe." 

His friend Thomas Jefferson wrote : "A machine far 
surpassing in ingenuity of contrivance, accuracy and utility 

anything of the kind ever before constructed 

He has not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation 



DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 69' 

approached nearer its maker than any man who has lived 
from the creation to this day." 

Barlow, the author of that ponderous poem the " Co- 
lumbiad," put in rhyme : 

" See the sage Rittenhouse with, ardent eye 
Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky ! 
He marks what laws the eccentric wanderers bind, 
Copies creation in his forming mind, 
And bids beneath his hand in semblance rise 
With mimic orbs the labors of the skies." 

Two universities vied with each other for its possession, 
and after Dr. Witherspoon, of Princeton College, had se- 
cured it for £300, Dr. Smith, of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, wrote, with a slight touch of spleen : " This 
province is willing to honor him as her own, and believe 
me many of his friends regretted that he should think so 
little of his noble invention as to consent to let it go to a 
village.'' Smitb was mollified, however, by an engage- 
ment immediately undertaken to construct a duplicate, 
and he delivered a series of lectures on the subject to raise 
the money required. Wondering crowds went to see it, 
and after the Legislature of Pennsylvania had viewed it 
in a body, they passed a resolution giving Eittenhouse 
£300 as a testimony of their high sense of his mathemati- 
cal genius and mechanical abilities, and entered into an 
agreement with him to have a still larger one made, for 
which they were to pay £400. It even found its way 
into the field of diplomacy, for when Silas Deane was in 
France endeavoring to arrange a treaty of alliance between 
that country and our own against Great Britain, he sug- 
gested to the secret committee of Congress that the orrery 
be presented to Marie Antoinette as a douceur. It was 
somewhat injured by the British troops while in Princeton 
durincr the war. 



70 HISTOEICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

The year 1769 is memorable in the annals of astronomy. 
During that year occurred the transit of Venus — a phe- 
nomenon which offers the best means for calculating the 
distances between the heavenly bodies. It had up to 
that time never been satisfactorily observed. No man 
then living could ever have the opportunity again because 
it would not recur for one hundred and five years As- 
tronomers all over the world were alive to its importance. 
Arrangements were made for taking such observations as 
were possible in the capitals of Europe, and the govern- 
ments of England and France sent expeditions for the 
purpose to Otaheite. Hudson's Bay, and California. As 
early as June 21st in the preceding year, Rittenhouse 
read before the American Philosophical Society a series 
of calculations showing the time and duration of the com- 
ing transit. The Legislature of Pennsylvania gave £200 
sterling toward the expense of buying a telescope and 
micrometer and the other outlays, and on the 7th of 
January, 1769, the society appointed three committees to 
make observations in three different localities. One of 
these committees consisting of Rittenhouse, Dr. AVilliam 
Smith, John Lukens, and John Sellers, was to repair to 
the home of Rittenhouse at Norriton, and to him were in- 
trusted all of the preliminary arrangements. In Novem- 
ber he began the erection of an observatory, which was 
completed in April. He continued for months a series of 
observations to determine the exact latitude and longitude 
of the place, and to test the accuracy of his time-pieces. 
Thomas Penn sent from Europe a reflector, used by Smith ; 
a set of glasses intended for Harvard University, but which 
came too late to be forwarded, Rittenhouse fitted into a 
refractor for Lukens ; and his own telescope he retained. 
Several other necessary instruments, including a device 
for keeping time, he made with his own hands, and, like 



DAVID EITTP^NHOUSE. 71 

all of his construction, they were admitted to have been 
better than could have been obtained abroad. According 
to Smith, the committee trusted in this respect entirely to 
the extensive knowledge of Rittenhouse, and when he 
and the others arrived, two days before the transit, they 
had nothing to do but adjust the telescopes to their vision. 
A rainy day, even a passing cloud, would have made all 
the labor vain, but fortunately it happened to be perfectly 
clear. The previous anxiety, the sense of responsibility 
at the critical moment, the delight consequent upon the 
great success, constituted a sequence of emotions too ex- 
citing for the physically delicate Rittenhouse, and when 
the contact had ended he swooned away. The observa- 
tions, according to the testimony of Maskelyne, the royal 
astronomer of England, were excellent and complete. 
Rittenhouse at once made calculations to determine the 
parallax of the sun, and gave them to Dr. Smith, who 
added his own and prepared a report to the society, which 
was printed in its proceedings ; and so it happened that 
the first approximately accurate results in the measure- 
ment of the spheres were given to the world, not by the 
schooled and salaried astronomers who watched from the 
magnificent royal observatories of Europe, but by unpaid 
amateurs and devotees to science in the youthful province 
of Pennsylvania. 

Said a learned English author : " There is not another 
society in the world that can boast of a member such as 
Mr. Rittenhouse, theorist enough to encounter the prob- 
lem of determining from a few observations the orbit of a 
comet, and also mechanic enough to make with his own 
hands an equal-altitude instrument, a transit telescope, 
and a time-piece." 

In the year 1769 there was also a transit of Mercury, 
a phenomenon by no means so rare or of such moment as 



72 HISTORICAL A^^D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

that of Venus, but still of importance. Observations of 
it were made by Rittenliouse, Smith, Lukens, and Owen 
Biddle, and were published by the American Philosophical 
Society. The following year he calculated the elements 
of the motion and the orbit of a comet then visible, show- 
ing himself, by comparison with European investigators 
engaged in the same task, capable of performing the most 
difficult of computations in physical astronomy, and add- 
ing to his already extended reputation. In fact, these 
achievements had given him so wide a fame that his 
powers could no longer remain pent up in Norriton, and 
with the prospect of many advantages both in the way of 
his handiwork and of his science, he removed to Philadel- 
phia, the American centre of learning and intelligence. 
He still gained his livelihood by mechanical labor, and it 
is curious to find him as late as 1775 assuming charge, 
at a small salary, of the State-house clock. About this 
time the almanacs of the day began to announce to their 
readers that, " as to the calculations, I need only inform 
the public they are performed by that ingenious master 
of mathematics, David Rittenhouse, A. M., of this city, 
etc." And " our kind customers are requested to observe 
that the ingenious David Rittenhouse, A. M., of this city, 
has favored us with the astronomical calculations of our 
almanac for this year ; therefore they may be most firmly 
relied on." Soon after his removal his wife died, and in 
December, 1772, he married Hannah Jacobs, a member 
of a distinguished and influential Quaker family m Chester 
and Philadelphia counties. In 1771 he made some ex- 
periments on the electrical properties of thegyinnotus; 
in 1772, after constructing the necessary instruments, he 
and Samuel Rhoads, for the Assembly of Pennsylvania, 
surveved and ascertained the levels of the lands lying 
between the Susquehanna and the Delaware, with a view 



DAVID RTTTEN HOUSE. 73 

to the connection of those two rivers by a canal ; in 1773 
he was appointed president of a commission to make the 
river Schuylkill navigable, a duty which they performed 
by constructing rough dams, and which was continued for 
a number of years ; and in 1774 he and Samuel Holland, 
commissioners from their respective provinces, fixed the 
northeastern extremity of the boundary between New 
York and Pennsylvania, 

In 1770 he prepared for the publications of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society a paper giving a method of 
ascertaining the true time of the sun's passing the me- 
ridian that attracted the attention of Von Zach, the Saxon 
astronomer. He was chosen one of the secretaries of that 
society in 1771, and on the 24tli of February, 1775, he 
read before it an oration upon the subject of astronomy. 
This oration is the most elaborate of his literary produc- 
tions. The language is simple, the style strong and clear, 
and it displays much research and special knowledge. In 
it he traces the history of astronomical discoveries and 
progress down to the time at which he wrote, but the 
most interesting portion of the address, as a test of his 
own acumen, is that in which he endeavors to forecast 
the future, and to point out the most promising paths for 
further investigation. The possibility of the existence of 
the planets that were then unknown seems to have 
occurred to him, for he says, " The telescope had dis- 
covered all the globes whereof it is composed, at least as 
far as we yet know." He believed in the existence of 
beings differing from man more or less in their natures on 
the other planets. The spots on the sun he conjectured 
to be solid and permanent cavities, darkened by matter 
that occasionally and accidentally collected in them. But 
it was among the fixed stars that with correct inference 

he expected the greatest discoveries to be made ; and the 

5 



74 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Milky Way whose mysteries the telescopes of his day 
were not powerful enough to unravel, whetted his fancy 
and aroused his eloquence. The Milky Way, composed 
of millions of small stars, seemed to him to be a vein of 
closer texture running through material creation, which 
he supposed to be confined between parallel planes of 
immeasurable extent. The discoveries of Herschel and 
others subsequently verified many of his hypotheses. 
" We shall find sufficient reason to conclude," he says, 
" that the visible creation, consisting of revolving worlds 
and central suns, even including all those that are beyond 
the reach of human eye and telescope, is but an inconsid- 
erable part of the whole. Many other and very various 
orders of things, unknown to and inconceivable by us, 
may and probably do exist in the unlimited regions of 
space. And all yonder stars, innumerable, with their 
dependencies, may perhaps compose but the leaf of a 
flower in the Creator's garden, or a single pillar in the 
immense building of the Divine Architect." His senti- 
ments on some other subjects were occasionally inter- 
woven. Frederick the Great he called the tyrant of the 
north and scourge of mankind. He commiserated with 
those who, because their bodies were disposed to absorb 
or reflect the rays of light in a way difterent from our 
own, were in America doomed to endless slavery. The 
rapid growth of the American colonies seemed to him to 
indicate an early fall. He dreaded the introduction of 
articles of luxury, and the growth of luxurious tastes, 
through a too easy intercourse with Europe. " I am 
ready to wish — vain wish," he added — " that Nature 
would raise her everlasting bars between the New and 
the Old World, and make a voyage to Europe as imprac- 
ticable as one to the moon." 

In March of the same year the American Philosophical 



DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 75 

Society presented for the consideration of the Assembly a 
plan for the prosecution of discoveries in astronomy, geog- 
raphy, and navigation, to which they said they were urged 
by some of the greatest men of Europe. It contemplated 
the erection of a public observatory, by subscription, 
upon a lot of ground to be granted by the proprietaries, 
who had expressed their concurrence. It should be fur- 
nished with the necessary instruments, which would be 
of but little expense, because the gentleman who it was 
proposed should conduct the depign was capable of con- 
structing them all in the most masterly manner. He 
should receive an annual salary both in the capacity of 
public astronomer and as surveyor of roads and waters. 
Here the captains and mates of vessels, and young men 
desirous of obtaining practical knowledge, should be 
taught the use of instruments and receive other instruction, 
and the observations made should be published annually 
for the benefit of learned societies at home and abroad. 
" We have a gentleman among us," they went on to say, 
" whose abilities, speculative as well as practical, would 
do honor to any country, and who is nevertheless indebted 
for bread to his daily toil, in an occupation the most 
unfriendly both to health and study." To give him an 
occasion to use his genius for the'advantage of his country 
would be an honor which crowned heads might glory in, 
but which Pennsylvania ought not to yield to the greatest 
prince or people on earth. Should the present opportu- 
nity be neglected, whole centuries might not afiord 
another. 

The fact that such a design should be seriously proposed 
and favorably entertained at that early period shows a 
remarkable appreciation of the abilities of Rittenhouse, 
and a regard for the interests of science which is certainly 
creditable to the society, the Legislature, and to public 



76 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

taste. It was the habit of the day to compare Ritten- 
house to Newton, and who can say that if this scheme 
could have been carried into execution, and he could have 
devoted the remainder of his days to quiet study and 
investigation in those pursuits in which unquestionably 
he was a master, the parallel would not have been justi- 
fied ? Fate, however, determined otherwise. It was not 
to be. America had other work to do, and her science 
must bide its time, though it be for ages. The whirl- 
winds of war were about to be let loose over the land, 
and even then the drums were beating in the town of 
Boston. A month later occurred the battles of Concord 
and Lexington. The next we see of Rittenhouse he was 
busily engaged in military rather than astronomical 
problems, and henceforth his time, his energies, and his 
talents were in the main occupied with sublunary affairs. 
He had made many clocks ; their leaden weights were 
now needed for bullets, and it was ordered by the Com- 
mittee of Safety that he and Owen Biddle "should 
prepare moulds for the casting of clock weights, and send 
them to some iron furnace, and order a sufficient number 
to be immediately made for the purpose of exchanging 
them with the inhabitants of this city for their leaden 
clock weights." He understood the measurement of 
heights and the establishment of levels, and was therefore 
sent to survey the shores of the Delaware to ascertain 
what points it would be best to fortify in order to prevent 
a landing of the enemy. The Committee of Safety ap- 
pointed him their engineer in October, 1775, and in this 
capacity he was called upon to arrange for casting cannon 
of iron and brass, to view a site for the erection of a Con- 
tinental powder mill, to conduct experiments for rifling 
cannon and musket balls, to fix upon a method of fasten- 
ing the chain for the protection of the river, to superintend 



DAVID EITTENHOUSE. 77 

the manufacture of saltpetre, and to locate a magazine for 
military stores on the Wissahickon. The assembly ap- 
pointed him one of the Committee in April, 1776, and in 
August he was elected its vice-president. As presiding 
officer he issued in November two proclamations, printed 
in the form of handbills, one of which announced to the 
citizens that the enemy were advancing, and that only the 
most vigorous measures could prevent the city from falling 
into their hands. " We therefore entreat you by the 
most sacred of all bonds, the love of virtue, of liberty, and 
of your country, to forget every distinction, and unite as 
one man in this time of extreme danger. Let us defend 
ourselves like men determined to be free." The other 
was addressed to the colonels of battalions, and informing 
them that General Howe with his army was already at 
Trenton, continued, " This glorious opportunity of signal- 
izing himself in defense of our country, and securing the 
rights of America forever, will be seized by every man 
who has a spark of patriotism in his bosom." In March, 
1776, he was elected a member of the Assembly froni the 
city of Philadelphia, and later a member of the Conven- 
tion which met July 15th, 1776, and drafted the first 
Constitution for the State of Pennsylvania. No delegate 
to the Convention was intrusted with more important 
duties than he, and frequently he presided over its de- 
liberations. He was one of the committee which drafted 
the frame of government, and subsequently, together with 
Benjamin Franklin and William Vanhorn, he revised its 
language. A committee of which he was a member pre- 
pared an address to the people setting forth the reasons 
for the different actions which had been taken. On the 
8th of April, 1777, David Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, 
Joseph Dean, Richard Bache, and John Shee were ap- 
pointed a board of war for the State of Pennsylvania ; 



78 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and in the fall of that year, after the British army had 
entered within its borders and secured possession of Phila- 
delphia, he was one of the Council of Safety, to whom the 
most absolute powers were temporarily granted. In order 
to provide for the preservation of the commonwealth, they 
were authorized to imprison and punish, capitally or other- 
wise, all who should disobey their decrees, to regulate the 
prices of all commodities, and to seize private property, 
without any subsequent liability to suit because of any of 
their proceedings. Surely no other twelve men were 
ever vested with greater powers over their fellow-beings 
than these. 

On the 14th of January, 1777, he was elected by the 
Assembly the first State Treasurer under the new Con- 
stitution, and he was unanimously re-elected to the same 
position in each of the succeeding twelve years, and until 
he finally refused longer to serve. In consequence of the 
fi actuating values of both the State and Continental cur- 
rencies, and their almost constant depreciation, together 
with the unusual demands for funds and the difficulties 
in the way of their collection incident to a state of war, it 
was an office of great trial and responsibility, for which 
the small commissions aftorded a very inadequate compen- 
sation. It occupied his time and annoyed him so much 
that he once wrote to his wife while hundreds of miles 
away in the forest, surrounded by savages, that nothing 
so reconciled him to his present deprivations " as the 
aversion I have to the plagues of that same office." 
When the approach of tlie British army and the subse- 
quent capture of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777 made 
necessary a withdrawal of the government departments, 
the Treasury was removed to the second-story front room 
of the house of Mr. Henry in Lancaster. The family of 
Rittenhouse were at Norriton, so near to the lines of the 



DAVID EiTTENHOUSE. 79 

enemy that the presence tliere of a member of the Council 
of Safety and Treasurer would have been attended with 
great risk, and he was therefore compelled to endure an 
anxious separation from them until the following June. 
In addition to holding the ofHce of Treasurer, he was trustee 
of the Loan Office for ten years, from 1780 to 1790, at 
which latter date it was superseded. The Loan Office was 
established in 1723 for the purpose of providing a circulat- 
ing medium of exchange, and was authorized to loan bills 
of credit, which were legal tenders, upon the security of 
mortgages upon real estate. The duties of this office re- 
quired the exercise of the greatest prudence in the issue of 
the bills and the nicest care in the valuation of the mort- 
gages, and it is a tribute to the practical judgment of 
Hittenhouse, who was sole trustee, that its affairs were 
finally closed entirely without loss. 

The disputes between Pennsylvania and Virginia upon 
the question of boundaries became serious, and in 1779 
George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse for 
the former State, and James Madison and Robert Andrews 
for the latter, were appointed commissioners to arljust 
them. They entered into an agreement to extend Mason 
and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude from 
the river Delaware, and from its western extremity to 
draw a meridian to the northern limit of Pennsylvania, 
for the southern and western boundaries of that State. 
This agreement was subsequently ratified, but uncertainty 
as to the exact location of the line led to numerous collis- 
ions between settlers claiming under grants from the two 
States, and even hostilities were threatened. Atone time 
the authority of Congress was invoked in the interest of 
peace. It finally became necessary to run and mark the 
lines, and in 1784 Pennsylvania appointed as commis- 
sioners for that purpose John Ewing, David Rittenhouse, 



80 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

John Lnkens, and Thomas Hutchins. They accepted the 
appointment in a letter in which they say, "An anxious 
desire to gratify the astronomical world in the performance 
of a problem which has never yet been attempted in any 
country by a precision and accuracy that would do no 
dishonor to our characters, while it prevents the State of 
Pennsylvania from the chance of losing many hundred 
thousands of acres secured to it by our agreement at Balti- 
more, has induced us to suffer our names to be mentioned 
in the accomplishment of the work." 

The commissioners on behalf of Virginia were James- 
Madison, Robert Andrews, John Page, and Andrew Elli- 
cott. In April, Rittenhouse was busily engaged in con- 
structing the necessary instruments, and in June he, with 
Lukens, Page, and Andrews, erected an observatory at 
Wilmington, Delaware, where they made a series of sixty 
observations of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter before 
their departure. Page and Lukens were unable to endure 
the fatigue and labor of a six months' journey through the 
wilderness, and returned home, but the others accomplished 
their task with entire accuracy and certainty, and having 
ascertained the lines and the southwestern corner of Penn- 
sylvania, marked them with stones and by killing trees. 
The following summer the western boundary of that State 
was fixed by Rittenhouse and Andrew Porter on behalf 
of Pennsylvania, and Joseph Neville and Andrew Ellicott 
on behalf of Virginia, For that portion of the line north 
of the Ohio River, Ellicott also acted for Pennsylvania. 
It was the most important work of the kind in which 
Rittenhouse was ever engaged, and to the general confi- 
dence in his skill was largely due the settlement of this 
serious and alarming controversy. In 1786 he and 
Andrew Ellicott on behalf of Pennsylvania, and James 
Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on behalf of New York, were 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 81 

engaged in fixing the boundary between those two States- 
The New York representatives relied entirely upon the 
Pennsylvanians for a supply of instruments, and there 
was no sector suitable for the purpose, at least in that 
part of America Rittenhouse therefore made one, which 
was used in determining the line, and which, in the lan- 
guage of Ellicott, was most excellent. On the 2d of 
December, 1785, Congress appointed Rittenhouse, with 
John Ewiner and Thomas Hutchins, a commission to run 
a line of jurisdiction between the States of New York and. 
Massachusetts, which work was performed in 1787, and 
constituted, says Dr. Rush, his farewell peace-offering to- 
the union and happiness of his country. 

After Congress had determined upon the establishment 
of a mint, Rittenhouse was appointed its first director, 
April 14th, 1792, by President Washington. He was 
extremely reluctant to undertake the task, but his me- 
chanical knowledge and ability seemed to make him 
especially fitted for the organization of an institution 
whose successful working depended upon the construction 
and proper use of delicate machinery, and at the urgent 
solicitation of both Jefferson and Hamilton he consented. 
When it had been running for three years, however, 
finding that he could be relieved from what he felt to be 
a burden, and that the pressing necessity for his services 
no longer existed, he resigned. 

The absorption of so much of his time since the begin- 
ning of the Revolutionary war in the performance of 
public duties, important and honorable as were the offices 
he held, was not only a source of regret to himself, but 
seems to have been generally regarded in the light of a 
sacrifice. As early as 1778, Jefferson felt impelled to write 
to him : " i doubt not there are in your country many per- 
sons equal to the task of conducting government, but you 



82 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

should consider that the world has but one Rittenhouse, 

and never had one before. . . . Are those powers, then, 

which, being intended for the erudition of the world, are, 

like air and light, the world's common property, to be 

taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace 

drudgery of governing a single State — a work which may 

be executed by men of ordinary stature, such as are 

always and everywhere to be found ?" The royalist party 

were fully as reluctant to see him participating in political 

affairs, and their sense of the loss to science would seem 

to have been equally as keen. A Tory poet published in 

the Pennsylvania Evening Post, December 2d, 1777, 

these lines : 

"To David Rittenhouse. 

" Meddle not with state affairs; 
Keep acquaintance with the stars ; 
Science, David, is thy line ; 
Warp not Nature's great design, 
If thou to fame wouldst rise. 

" Then follow learned Newton still ; 
Trust me, mischievous Machiavel 

Thou'lt find a dreary coast, 
Where, damped the philosophic fire, 
Neglected genius will retire. 

And all thy fame be lost. 

" Politics will spoil the man 
Formed for a more exalted plan. 

Great Nature bids thee rise, 
To pour fair science on our age, 
To shine amidst the historic page, 

And half unfold the skies. • 

" But if thou crush this vast design, 
And in the politician's line 
With wild ambition soar. 
Oblivion shall entomb thy name, 
And from the rolls of future fame 
Thou'lt fall to rise no more." 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 83 

The Eev. Jonathan Odell, also a loyalist, contributed 
to Rivington's Royal Gazette, of New York, for Septem- 
ber 8th, 1779, a long poem on " The Word of Congress," 
which contains the following : 

" There dwelt in Norriton's sequestered bowers 
A mortal blessed with mathematic powers. 
To whom was David Rittenhouse unknown ? 
Fair Science saw and marked him for her own. 
His eye creation to its bounds would trace. 
His mind the regions of unbounded space. 
Whilst thus he soared above the starry spheres, 
The word of Congress sounded in his ears ; 
He listened to the voice with strange delight, 
And swift descended from his dazzling height, 
Then mixing eager with seditious tools, 
Vice-President-elect of rogues and fools, 
His hopes resigned of philosophic fame, 
A paltry statesman Rittenhouse became." 

Though the public affairs with which he was associated 
would have been sufficient to have exhausted the energies 
of a man of even more than ordinary abilities, and must 
necessarily have engrossed much of his attention, it must 
not be supposed that he abandoned his astronomical and 
philosophical studies. At the suggestion of Colonel 
Timothy Matlack, the Assembly, in April, 1781, granted 
him £250 for an observatory, which he erected probably 
at that time in the yard attached to his residence, at the 
north-west corner of Seventh and Arch streets, in Phila- 
delphia, and which Lalande says in his Astronomie in 
1792 was the only one in America. The publications of 
the American Philosophical Fociety contain between the 
years 1780 and 1796 no less than seventeen papers 
written by him upon optics, magnetism, electricity, 
meteors, logarithms and other mathematics, the improve- 
ment of time-keepers, the expansion of wood by heat, 



84 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

astronomical observations upon comets, transits, and 
eclipses, and similar abstruse topics. Even during the 
trying period of 1776, 1777, and 1778, while these publi- 
cations were suspended, and the war was surging around 
his own home, he and Smith, Lukens, and Biddle found 
time to note some observations upon a transit of Mercury 
and two eclipses of the sun. Within a week after the • 
evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Rittenhouse 
was in the city, seated by his telescope, watching an 
eclipse. In 1776 he wrote a defence of the Newtonian 
system for the Pennsylvania Magazine, and in 1782 
invented a wooden hygrometer. From 1779 to 1782 he 
was Professor of Astronomy in the University of Penn- 
sylvania, and also a trustee and vice-provost of the same 
institution. 

In this connection an interesting incident is narrated in 
the Life and Times of Dr. William Smith. The 
announcement of the death of Franklin was brought by a 
messenger to a party of gentlemen, consisting of Thomas 
McKean, Henry Hill, Thomas Willing, Rittenhouse, and 
Dr. Smith, who were dining with Governor Thomas 
Mifflin, at the Falls of Schuylkill. A fierce thunder- 
storm happened to be raging at the same time. Impressed 
by the event and the circumstances under which they 
heard it. Smith wrote at the table this impromptu : 

" Cease, cease, ye clouds, your elemental strife! 
Why rage ye thus, as if to threaten life ? 
Seek, seek no more to shake our souls with dread ! 
What busy mortal told you Franklin's dead ? 
What though he yields at Jove's imperious nod, 
With Rittenhouse he left his magic rod ! " 

He succeeded Franklin as president of the American 
Philosophical Society upon the death of the latter in 1790. 
He was elected a fellow of the Academy of Arts and 



DAVID KITTEN HOUSE. . 85 

Sciences of Boston in 1782 ; the College of New Jersey- 
gave him the honorary degrees of Master of Arts in 1772, 
and Doctor of Laws in 1789 ; the College of William and 
Mary, in Virginia, gave him the honorary degree of 
Master of Arts in 1784, designating him as principem 
philosophorum ; but the highest distinction of this char- 
acter he ever received, and the highest in the world then 
attainable by a man of science, was his election as a 
foreign member of the Royal Society of London in 1795. 

One of the closing events in the life of Rittenhouse 
has frequently been the subject of adverse criticism. The 
French people were then in the throes of their Revolution. 
The assistance given by France at the critical period of 
our war for independence, and the fact that she was now 
apparently in a death-struggle in an effort to secure her 
own liberties, appealed most forcibly to the sympathies of 
the American people. 

Genet, a warm-blooded and, as it proved, a not very 
discreet young Frenchman, was sent as minister from the 
republic to this country. When the news came of his 
arrival at Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting, a 
meeting of citizens was called in Independence Square, 
and Rittenhouse was appointed chairman of a committee 
to draft resolutions. These resolutions, a little glowing 
in their tone, but carefully drawn so as not to conflict 
with the American position of neutrality, declared the 
cause of France to be that of the human race, and 
expressed the strongest sympathy with her in her strug- 
gles for " freedom and equality," as well as attachment, 
fraternal feeling, and gratitude. The assemblage then 
formed in line, and walked three abreast around to the 
City Tavern, where they presented their address to Genet, 
who said the citizens of France would consider that day 
as one of the happiest in the career of the infant republic. 



86 . HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Democratic societies, whose raison d'etre was in the main 
hostility to England and syiiipathy for France, sprang 
into existence all over the United States, and one was 
organized in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse as president. 
Among its members were A. J. Dallas, Peter S. Dupon- 
ceau, Colonel Clement Biddle, Benjamin Rush, Caesar 
Rodney, B. F. Bache, Stephen Girard, George Logan, 
Cadwalader Morris, and others of the most distinguished 
residents of the city. Doubtless the French example and 
party zeal somewhat heated their imaginations, and they 
took strong ground concerning the pending European 
struggle. They resolved to use no address save that of 
" Citizen," to suppress the polite formulas of ordinary 
correspondence, and to date their letters from the 4th of 
July, 1776. Rittenhouse had no participation in these 
grave trifles, and increasing infirmities having prevented 
him from attending the meetings, he within a year 
resigned the presidency. He did not withdraw, however, 
in time to save his reputation from political attack, and 
Oobbett, the porcupine, as he called himself, of the day, 

says, fiercely : " This Rittenhouse was an atheist 

How much he received a year from France is not precisely 
known. The American Philosophical Society is composed 
of a nest of such wretches as hardly ever met together 
before ; it is impossible to find words to describe their 
ignorance or their baseness." Later generations of men 
have not been prone to look at the French Revolution 
through the lens of Burke, and the fact that the Demo- 
cratic party came into power at the close of the adminis- 
tration of John Adams did much to whiten the work of 
the earlier Democratic societies, and to make it appear 
that Rittenhouse and his friends had only been a little 
in advance of the current. 

The few remaining years of his life were spent in 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 87 

comparative retirement, during which the physical diffi- 
culties he had been laboring under from youth gradually 
cumulated, and his power of resistance diminished. He 
died on the 26th of June, 1796, his last words being an 
expression of gratitude to a friend for some slight atten- 
tion, and of confidence in the future — " You make the 
way to God easier." 

There is a bust of him from life by Ceracchi, and a 
portrait by Peale. Dr. Benjamin Rush read a eulogy 
before the American Philosophical Society, in the presence 
of the President and Congress of the United States, the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania, foreign ministers, judges, and 
men of learning of the time. One of the city squares 
bears his name. His home on Arch street was long 
known as " Fort Rittenhouse," because, pending a dispute 
as to jurisdiction between Pennsylvania and the United 
States in 1809, it was guarded for three weeks by State 
militia, to prevent the service of a mandamus issued by 
the Federal courts. 

Though he had never received any regular training, his 
attainments were extensive. In addition to the classics 
he mastered the French, German, and Dutch languages. 
From the German he translated the drama of Lucia 
/Sampson, published by Charles Cist, and the Idyls of 
Gesner, and in the Columbian Magazine for February, 
1787, is a copper-plate print of the Ohio Pyle Falls from 
one of his sketches. A man of culture said he was never 
in his presence without learning something. He elicited 
the admiration of all the great men of his day, unless it 
be John Adams, who could find no remarkable depth in 
his face, called him an anchorite, and sought perhaps to 
disparage his reputation by alluding sharply to Philadel- 
phia as " the heart, the censorium, the pineal gland of the 
United States." In person he was tall and slender, and 



88 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the expression of his countenance was soft and mild. He 
had such a nice sense of honor tliat he refused to invest 
in the loans of the State while he was Treasurer, and 
when compelled to pay certain extravagant bills for the 
Mint, had them charged against his own salary. His 
modesty, partly due, doubtless, to the repression and 
religious seclusion through which his forefathers had for 
•centuries passed, and partly to certain apparently femi- 
nine traits in his character, amounted to a diffidence 
which was his chief defect. His tender sympathies went 
out to all of his fellows, and were catholic enough to 
embrace the negro slaves and the Gonestoga Indians who 
had fallen a prey to the vengeful instincts of the border. 
His tastes were simple and plain, his wants few, and his 
greatest pleasures were found within the circle of his own 
home. No higher tribute was ever accorded to human 
rectitude than was offered to him by the author of the 
Declaration of American Independence. " Nothing could 
give me more pleasure," wrote that statesman in a private 
letter to his daughter Martha, " than your being much 
with that worthy family, wherein you will see the best 
examples of rational life, and learn to imitate them." 

Such was the career and such the character of David 
Ritten house. When, a few years ago, Pennsylvania was 
called upon to place in the Capitol at Washington the 
statues of her two worthiest sons, she ought to have taken 
her warrior Wayne, and beside him set her philosopher 
Rittenhouse, who in his ancestry best represents that 
quiet and peaceful religious thought which led to her set- 
tlement, and in himself the highest intellectual plane she 
has yet reached. 



CHRISTOPEER DOCK, 



THE 



Pious Schoolmaster on the Seippack, 
and his works. 



6 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK. 



The student of American literature, should he search 
through histories, bibliographies, and catalogues of libra- 
ries for traces of Christopher Dock or his works, would 
follow a vain quest. The attrition of the great sea of 
human affairs during the course of a century and a half 
has left of the pious schoolmaster, as the early Germans 
of Pennsylvania were wont to call him, only a name, and 
of his reputation, nothing. Watson, the annalist, says, 
that in 1740 Christopher Duck taught school in the old 
Mennonite log church, in Germantown ; the catalogue of 
the American Antiquarian Society contains the title of 
his " Schul-ordnung " under the wrong year ; and these 
meagre statements are the only references to him I have 
ever been able to find in any English book. There may 
be men still living who have heard from their grandfathers 
of his kindly temper and his gentle sway, but memory is 
uncertain, and they are rapidly disappearing. Between 
the leaves of old Bibles and in out-of-the-way places in 
country garrets, perhaps, are still preserved some of the 
Schrifften, and birds and flowers which he used to wiite 
and paint as rewards for his dutiful scholars, but whose 
was the hand that made them has long been forgotten. 
The good which he did has been interred with his bones, 
and all that he did was good. The details of his life that 
can now be ascertained are very few, but huch as they 
are it is a fitting task to gather them together. The eye 
will sometimes leave the canvas on which are depicted the 
gaudy robes of a Catharine Cornaro, or the fierce passions 



92 HISTORICAL A]SD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of a Rizpah, and gratefully turn to a quiet rural scene, 
where broad fields stretch out/and herds feed in the shade 
of oaks, and all is suggestive of peace, strength and happi- 
ness. It may well be doubted whether the story of the 
Crusades has attracted more readers than the Imitation 
of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis ; the Life of John Wool- 
man has found its way into the highest walks of 
literature, while that of Anthony Wayne is yet to be 
written ; and the time may come when the American 
historian, wearied with the study of the wars with King 
Philip to the north of us, and the wars with Powhatan to 
the south of us, will turn his lens upon Pennsylvania, 
where the principles of the Reformation produced their 
ultimate fruits, and where the religious sects who were in 
the advance of thought, driven out of conservative and 
baiting Europe, lived together at peace with the natives 
and in unity among themselves without wars. The 
sweetness and purity which filled the soul of the Menno- 
nite, the Dunker, the Schwenkfelder, the Pietist, and the 
Quaker, was nowhere better exemplified than in Chris- 
topher Dock. It is told that once two men were talking 
together of him, and one said that he had never been 
known to show the slightest anger. The other re- 
plied that perhaps his temper had not been tested, and. 
presently when Dock came along, he reviled him 
fiercely, bitterly and profanely. The only reply made by 
Dock was : " Friend, may the Lord have mercy upon 
thee." He was a Mennonite who came from Germany to 
Pennsylvania about 1714. There is a tradition that he 
had been previously drafted into the army but had been 
discharged because of his convictions and refusal to bear 
arms. In 1718, or perhaps four years earlier, he opened 
a school among the Mennonites on the Skippack. It 
was an occupation to which he felt that he was divinely 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 93 

called, and he continued it, without regard to compensation 
which was necessarily very limited, for ten years. At 
the expiration of this period he went to farming. On 
the 28th of 9th month, 1735, he bought from the Penns 
100 acres of land in Salford Township, now Montgomery 
County, for £15, 10s., and, doubtless, this was the tract 
upon which he lived. For ten years he was a husband- 
man, but for four summers he taught school in German- 
town, in sessions of three months each year, and it would 
seem to have occurred during this period. While away 
from the school he was continually impressed with 
a consciousness of duties unfulfilled, and in 1738 he gave 
up his farm and returned to his old pursuit. He then 
opened two schools, one in Skippack and one in Salford, 
which he taught three days each alternately, and for the 
rest of his life he devoted himself to this labor unceas- 
ingly. 

In 1750, Christopher Saur, the Germantown publisher, 
conceived the idea that it would be well to get a written 
description of Dock's method of keeping school, with a 
view to printing it, in order, as he said, that other school- 
teachers whose gift was not so great might be instructed ; 
that those who cared only for the money they received 
might be shamed ; and that parents might know how a 
well arranged school was conducted, and how themselves 
to treat children. To get the description was a matter 
requiring diplomacy because of the decided feeling on the 
part of Dock that it would not be sinless to do anything 
for his own praise, credit or elevation. Saur, therefore, 
wrote to Dielman Kolb, a prominent Mennonite minister 
in Salford, and a warm friend of Dock, urging his request 
and presenting a series of questions which he asked to 
have answered. Through the influence of Kolb the 
reluctant teacher was induced to undertake a reply and 



94 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the treatise was completed on the 8th of August, 1750. 
He only consented, however, upon the condition that it 
should not be printed during his lifetime For nineteen 
years afterward the manuscript lay unused. In the 
meantime the elder Saur had died, and the business had 
passed into the hands of his son, Christopher Saur the 
second. Finally in 1769 some " friends of the common 
good," getting wearied with the long delay, succeeded in 
overcoming the scruples of Dock, and secured his consent 
to having it printed. It met with further vicissitudes. 
Having read the MS., Saur mislaid it, and after a careful 
search concluded that it must have been sold along with 
some waste paper. He offered a reward for its return 
throu<^h his newspaper. People began to report that he 
had found something in it he did not like, and had put it 
away purposely. The satisfied author sent a messenger 
to him to say " that I should not trouble myself about 
the loss of the writing. It had never been his opinion 
that it ought to be printed in his lifetime, and so he was 
very well pleased that it had l)een lost." At length, 
after it had been lost for more than a year, it was found 
in a place through which he and his people had thoroughly 
searched. It was at once published in a large octavo 
pamphlet of fifty-four pages. The full title is: " Eine 
Einfaeltige und gruendlich abgefasste Sciml-ordnung 
darinnen deutlich vorgestellt wird, auf welche weisse die 
Kiinder nicht nur in den en in Schulen gewoehnlichen 
Lehren bestens angebracht sondern auch in der Lehre 
Gottseligkeit wohl unterrichtet werden moegen aus Liebe 
zu dem menschlichen Geschlecht aufgesetzt durch den 
wohlei-farncn und lang geuebten Schulmeister Christoph 
Dock : und durch finiire Freunde des gemeinen Bestens 
dem Druck uebergeben. Gerinantown, Gedruckt und zu 
finden bey Cliristoph Saur, 1770." 



CHETSTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 95 

The importance of this essay consists in the fact that 
it is the earliest, written and published in America, upon 
the subject of school teaching, and that it is the only- 
picture we have of the colonial country school/ It is 
remarkable that at a time when the use of force was con- 
sidered essential in the training of children, views so 
correct upon the subject of discipline should have been 
entertained. The only copy of the original edition I have 
ever seen is in the Cassel collection, recently secured by 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a ten years' 
search for one upon my own part has so far resulted in 
failure. A second edition was printed by Saur the same 
year, ©f which there is a copy in the library of the 
German Society of Philadelphia. In 1861, the Mennon- 
ites of Ohio published an edition, reprinted from a copy of 
the second edition, at the office of the " Gospel Visitor," 
at Columbia, in that State. This publication also met 
with an accident. A careless printer, who was setting 
type by candle light, knocked. over his candle and burned 
up one of the leaves of the original. The work was 
stopped because the committee having the matter in 
charge could find no other copy. Finally, in despair, 
they wrote to Mr. A. H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., 
who, without hesitation, took the needed leaf from his 
copy and sent it to them by mail. Mirahile dictu ! It was 
scrupulously cared for and speedily returned. It is 
difficult to determine which is the more admirable, the 

^ It is always treading on dangerous ground to say of a thing 
that it is the first of its kind, and especially is this true of books, 
whose numbers are infinite. I know of no publication on the subject 
written earlier, and the bibliography of the American Antiquarian 
Society shows none. If there be any in New England or elsewhere 
to dispute priority with that of the Pennsylvania Dutchman, let it 
be produced. 



96 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKS. 

confiding simplicity of a book lover who willingly ran- 
such a risk of making his own copy imperfect, or the 
Roman integrity which, being once in the possession of 
the only leaf necessary to complete a mutilated copy, 
firmly resisted temptation. 

The treatise is here for the first time translated into 
English, omitting the prefatory portions, and a catechism 
and two hymns which were appended. 

Vol. I, No. 33, of the Geistliches Ifagazien an exceed- 
ingly rare periodical published by Saur, about 1764, is 
taken up with a " Gopia einer Schrifft welche der Schul- 
meister Christoph Dock an seine noch lebende Schueler zur 
Lehr und Vermahnung aus Liebe geschrieben hat." It 
is signed at the end by Dock, and the following note is 
added : " N. B. The printer has considered it necessary 
to put the author's name to this piece first, because it is 
specially addressed to his scholars, though it suits all men 
without exception, and it is well for them to know who 
addresses them ; and, secondly, the beloved author has led, 
and still in his great ag;e leads, such a good life that it is 
important and cannot be hurtful to him that his name 
should be known. May God grant that all who read it 
may find something in it of practical benefit to them- 
selves." 

No. 40 of the same magazine consists of " Hundert 
noethige Sitten-Regeln fuer Kinder." It may be claimed 
for these Rules of Conduct that they are the first original 
American publication upon the subject of etiquette. It is 
not only a very curious and entertaining paper, but it is 
exceedingly valuable as an illustration of the customs and 
modes of life of those to whom it was addressed, and of 
what was considered " manners " among them. From it 
a picture of the children silent until they were addressed, 
seated upon stools around a table, in the centre of 



OHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 97 

which was a large, common dish wherein each child 
dipped with his spoon, and of the homely meal begun 
and closed with prayer, may be distinctly drawn. 

In No. 41 of the Magazien there is a continuation, or 
second part, containing " Hundert christliche Lebens- 
Reo;eln fuer Kinder." There is nothing said in either of 
these papers concerning the author, but if the internal 
evidence were not in itself suiEcient, the descendants of 
Saur have preserved the knowledge that they were 
written by Dock. 

In No. 15, Vol. II of the Magazien, are " Zwey 
erbauliche Lieder, welche der Gottselige Christoph Dock,. 
Schulmeister an der Schipbach, seinen lieben Schuelern, 
und alien andern die sie lesen, zur Betrachtung hinterlassen 
hat." 

He wrote a number of hymns, some of which are still 
used among the Mennonites in their church services. 
These hymns, so far as they are known to me, are as 
follows, the first line of each only being given : 

1. Kommt, liebe Kinder, kommt herbey. 

2. Ach kommet her ihr Menschen Kinder. 

3. Mein Lebensfaden lauft zu Ende. 

4. Ach Kinder wollt ihr lieben, 

5. Fromm seyn ist ein Schatz der Jugend. 

6. An Gottes gnad und milden Seegen. 

7. AUein auf Gott setz dein Vertrauen. 

DurincT the later years of his life Dock made his home 
with Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite farmer on the Skip- 
pack. One evening in the fall of 1771 he did not return 
from his labors at the usual time. A search was made 
and he was found in the school-house on his knees — dead. 
After the dismissal of the scholars for the day he had 
remained to pray and the messenger of death had over- 
taken him at his devotions — a fitting end to a life which 



98 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

bad been entirely given to pious contemplation and 
useful works. 

He left two daugbters, Margaret, wife of Henry 
Stryckers, of Salford, and Catbarine, wife of Peter Jansen, 
of Skippack. 



Works of Christopher Dock. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 

August 8, 1750. 

In acceding to Friend Dielman's request to me I could 
at once commence witbout preliminary remarks, but 
since Friend Cbristopber Saur requests Dielman to get 
information of everytbing, even of tbe letter-writing 
among tbe scbolars, I must give Friend Saur a prefatory 
account by way of explanation of tbe subject. 

After I bad given up tbe scbool on tbe Skippack, wbicb 
I bad kept for ten years, I lived upon tbe land for ten 
years, and according to my little ability did farm work. 
Many opportunities offered tbemselves during tliis time 
for keeping scbool, and I was solicited in tbe matter until, 
finally, it came about again tbat I kept scbool in tbese 
two townsbips of Skippack and Salford, tbree days a 
week in eacb townsbip. It was before known to me tbat 
scbool teacbing in tbis country was far different from in 
■Germany, since tbere tbe scbool stands upon sucb pillars 
tbat tbe common people cannot well overtlirow it. I 
tbougbt of tbe duties wbicb tbis call imposed and formed 
tbe earnest resolution to truly live up to tbese duties, but 
I saw tbe depraved condition of the young, and tbe many 
<iifficulties of tbis world by wbicb they are depraved and 



CHKTSTOPHER DOCK AND TIIS WORKS. 99 

injured by those older. I considered iny own luiworthi- 
ness, and the unequal influence of parents in the training 
of children, since some seek the welfare and happiness of 
their children in teaching and life with their whole hearts, 
and turn all their energies to advance the honor of God, 
and the welfare of their children, but, on the otlier hand, 
others are just the opposite in life and teaching, a,nd set 
evil examples before their children. Through this it 
happens that not only between the schoolmaster and the 
children comes this unequal training, though he otherwise 
follows his calling truly and uprightly before God and 
man, but he is compelled to use unequal zeal and discip- 
line ; whereupon the schoolmaster at once gets the name 
of having favorites,, and of treating one child harder than 
another, which, as a matter-of-fact, he must do for con- 
science sake, in order that the children of good breeding 
be not injured by those of bad breeding. In other 
respects it is undoubtedly the schoolmaster's duty to be 
impartial, and to determine nothing by favoritism or 
appearance. The poor beggar child, scabby, ragged and 
lousy, if its conduct is good, or it is willing to be 
instructed, must be as dear to him, though he should 
never receive a penny for it, as that of the rich, from 
whom he may expect a great reward in this life. The 
great reward for the poor child follows in the life to come. 
In brief, it would take too much time to describe all the 
duties which fall upon a schoolmaster to perform faith- 
fully toward the young, but still longer would it take to 
describe all the difficulties which encompass him at home 
if he is willing to economize as his duties require. As I 
took all this into consideration, I foresaw that if I would 
and should do something valuable to the young it was 
necessary for me, daily and hourly, with David, to raise 
my eyes to the mountains for help. Ps. 121. Inasmuch 



100 FIISTORTCAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETOFTES. 

as I, amid the.se circumstances, was willing to erect some- 
thing to the honor of God. and the benefit of the young, I 
again placed myself in the work, and have hitherto con- 
tinued at it. I indeed wish that I had been able to do 
more, still I have come to thank the great God heartily 
that He has helped me to do as much as I have dene. 
Concerning Friend Saur's first question, viz. : 

How I Receive the Children in School? 

It is done in the following manner. The child is first 
welcoined by the other scholars, who extend their hands 
to it. It is then asked by me whether it will learn 
industriously and be obedient. If it promises me this I 
•explain to it how it must behave, and if it can say the 
A, B, O's in order, one after the other, and also by way 
of proof can point out with the forefinger all the desig- 
nated letters, it is put into the Ab Abs. When it gets this 
far its father must give it a penny and its mother must 
cook for it two eggs, because of its industry ; and a similar 
reward is due to it when it goes further into words, and 
so forth. But when it begins to read I owe it a token, if 
it has learned industriously and in the time fixed, and on 
the next day when this child comes to school it receives a 
ticket, on which is written the line " Industrious — one 
penny." This ticket it receives to show that it is taken 
into the school as a scholar. But it is told that from 
those scholars who are idle at study, or are otherwise 
disobedient, this token is taken away again, and that if 
they are not willing to be taught in any way, and remain 
stubborn they will be declared, before all the scholars, 
lazy and unfit, and that they belong in another harsh 
correction school. Then I ask the child again whether it 
will be obedient and industrious. If it answers "yes," 
then I show it the place where it will sit down. If it is 



CHRIbTOPHER DOCK AKD }US WORKS. lOl 

a boy I ask among the boys, if a girl, among the girls, 
which among them all will receive this new sch< ol child 
and teach and instruct it. Accordingly as the child is 
strange or known, or is agreeable in appearance or other- 
wise, there are generally many or few who are ready to 
offer to instruct it. If there are none willing, then I ask, 
who, for a Script or a Bird,-^ will instruct the child for a 
certain time, and this rarely fails. 

So much as to how I receive the children in school. 

JFarther information concerning the Assembling of the 
Children at School. 

The assembling takes place in this way : 

Since some here in the country have a long way to 
come but others live near to the school, so that the scholars 
cannot be all together at a fixed time and at the stroke 
of the clock, as in those places where men live together 
in a city or village, the rule and arrangements are that 
all of those who come first who can read in the Testament 
sit down on a bench, the boys together on one bench and 
the girls on another by themselves. A chapter is then 
given them out of the Testament to read and, without 
having studied it, they read in turn. Meanwhile I am 
writing before them. Those who read their verse without 
mistakes sit down at the table and write, but those who 
fail must go down to the foot on the bench. In the mean- 
time all who come in take their places at the foot on the 
bench. Those who are freed as above sit clown at the 

' I have one of these Birds, neatly drawn, and a Script written 
by him. In the Cassel collection are a number of the Scripts or 
SchrifFten. They are generally Scripture texts and verses, with 
more or less ornamentation. Schrifften of a similar kind, and some 
of them very elaborate, were, a century ago, to be found in almost 
every German household. 



102 HISTORICAL AND BI03RAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

table and this is continued until they are all together. 
He who remains last on the bench is a Lazy Scholar. 
When they are all together, and are examined to see 
whether they are washed and combed, a morning hymn 
.or psalm is given them to sino; and I sing and pray with 
them. Whatever can be intelligibly implanted in their 
minds concerning the Lord's Prayer and the ten command- 
ments, according to those gifts which God has imparted, 
for remembrance and instruction, is done To the very 
little ones short prayers and quotations are recited. So 
much for information concerning the assembling of the 
scholars. This explanation however, is necessary con- 
cerning prayers. Since many children say the prayers 
they have learned at home with half words and swiftly, 
especially the Father or Our Father, which form of prayer 
the Lord Jesus taught his disciples and contains every- 
thing it is necessary to ask of God for our bodies and souls, 
I am accustomed to say this prayer kneeling with them 
and they all kneehng repeat it after me. After the singing 
and prayer those who write go again to this exercise. But 
those who did not read in the Testament at the opening 
of school, have had the time during the delay to learn 
their reading. These, after prayers are finished, are called 
up to do their reading. Those who know their reading 
will have a marked with chalk on their hands. This 
is a sign that they have failed in nothing. But those 
who do not know their reading well, and whose failures 
are not more than three, are sent back to learn their read- 
ing better until the little ones have all recited. If any 
one comes up again and fails as many as three times it is 
shown with a word to the scholars that he has failed three 
times, and all shout out at him " Lazy" and then his name 
is written down. Now whether a child naturally fears 
the rod or does not fear it, this I know from experience 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. lOS 

thai this shaming cry of the children gives them more 
pain and drives them more to study than if I should hold 
the rod before them and use it all the time. If such a 
child under these circumstances has friends in the school 
who can and will teach it, it will try more earnestly than 
before. The reason is that if its name is not rubbed out 
the same day, before school closes, the* scholars are at 
liberty to write down the idle scholar's name and take it 
home with them. But if it is found in the future that the 
child knows well its lesson its name is again made known 
to the scholars and they are told that it has known its 
lessons perfectly and failed in nothing. Then they all call 
out " Industrious." When this happens its name is rubbed 
out of the list of idle scholars and the former misdoing is 
forgotten. 

Concerning those Children who are in Spelling. 

These are every day also put to the proof in regard to 
pronunciation. At the recitation in spelling where the word 
has more than one syllable, they must all seek for the 
pronunciation and then it is soon found by the test, though 
they know how to spell properly, whether through mis- 
pronunciation they are unfit to be so soon put at reading. 
Before reaching this point the child must go over his task 
repeatedly and it is done in this way. The child gives 
me its book. I spell, and it must pronounce. If it cannot 
do it quickly another in the same way gives the pronunci- 
ation. In this way it learns to distinguish how it must 
be governed in pronunciation by the spelling and not by 
its own notions. 

Concerning the A, B, /Scholars. 

To make these scholars familiar with the letters at first 
the easiest way, if I had but one child in the school, would 



104 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

be to give them in the beginning only a line to learn and 
prove forward and backwards in order for them to learn 
to know and call the letters better, so that they would not 
get their A, B, C, by rote. But having many of this 
kind I let them repeat the A, B, Cs, after one another, 
but when the child has recited, I ask it whether it can- 
not show to me. the letter with its finger? If I find that 
the child doesn't know, or is backward, I ask another in 
the same way or as many as there are. Whichever finger 
shows the letter first I take in my hand and hold it until 
I have made for that child a mark with chalk. Then I 
ask again for the other letters and so on. The child who 
during the day has received the most marks has shown 
the most letters, and to this one I owe something, some- 
times a flower painted upon paper or a bird. But if there 
are several alike it is decided by lot. This gives the least 
discontent. This plan takes away from the backward 
something of their backwardness, which is a great hinder- 
ance to learning, and also increases their wish to go to 
school and love for it. 

So much as to his request to know how I receive the 
children in school, and how I arrange the assembling of 
the children before prayer and continue the exercises after 
prayer, through what means the inattentive and careless 
are induced to give thought and attention to learning 
their lessons well, and how the too shy are, as much as 
possible, assisted. 

Further Continuation of the Information. 

After the little ones have recited I give the Testament 
scholars a chapter to learn. Those who read letters and 
news sit together, and those who cipher sit together. 
When I find among the little ones any who have pro- 
gressed 80 far in reading that they will soon be ready to 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 105 

read in tlie Testament, I point them out to the Testament 
scholars to try whether a good reader among the Testa- 
ment scholars will receive them for instruction. Who- 
ever is willing walks out, takes the said scholar by the 
hand, and they sit down near each other. When this is 
■done a chapter is selected in which each has two verses 
to learn, but if it is found that further exercises are 
necessary, as to seek a quotation or chapter, or to learn a 
■quotation by heart, in which exercise also each must 
read a verse, only a single verse is selected, so that it do 
not fall too hard on those trying to read in the Testament. 
If it is found that these scholars upon the trial are good 
and industrious in learning the selected verses, a week is 
given them for proof, in which week they learn and recite 
their lesson in the A, B, book, with the little ones, and 
must learn and recite their verse with the Testament 
scholars. If they stand the proof well, the next week 
they come out of the A, B, book into the Testament, 
and then they are permitted to commence writing. But 
those who do not bear the test must remain a stated time 
with the A, B, C scholars before they again liave a trial. 
After the Testament scholars have recited, the little ones 
are again taken up. When this is done they are 
reminded of the chapter before read, and for my and their 
instruction are required to think over the teachings con- 
tained in it. Since it usually occurs that such teachings 
are also written in other places of the Holy Scriptures 
these latter are also hunted up and read. Afterward a 
hymn is given out which also contains these teachings. 
If afterward time remains a short quotation is given to 
them all together to learn by heart. After this is done 
they are required to show their writing, and after these 
are looked over and numbered, a hard word is given to 

the one, who has the first number, to spell. If he cannot 

7 



106 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

spell it it goes to the second, and so on. Whoever spells 
it receives his writing. Then another hard word is given 
to the first and is continued until all, through spellings 
have received their writings. 

Since the children bring their dinners with them there 
is an hour's intermission after dinner, but as they gener- 
ally misuse this intermission if they are left alone, it is 
required that one or two of them, while I write, read out 
of the Old Testament, a useful history, or out of Moses 
and the Prophets, or Solomon or Ecclesiastes, until school 
calls. 

There is also this Information. 

Children have occasion to go out of school, and per- 
mission must be o-iven to them or there will be filth and 
vile smells in the school. But the cry for permission 
to go out might continue the whole day, and it be asked 
without occasion, so that two or three could be out at a 
time to play. To guard against this, upon a nail driven 
into the post of the door hangs a wooden strip. Whoever 
has occasion to go out looks for the strip to see whether 
it hangs at the door. If the strip is there the pass is 
there also, he may go without asking, and he takes the 
strip with him and goes out. If another has occasion to 
go he need not ask, but placing himself by the door, as 
soon as the one comes in who has the strip, he takes it 
from him and goes out. If the strip remains out too 
long so that necessity compels him who waits at the door 
to call attention to it, then it is asked who went out last. 
He from whom the pa?s was taken knows, so that no one 
can delay too long. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 107 

How to teach figures and cipher Iny to those lulio are 

ignorant. 

I write upon the Note-Board^ which hangs where all 
can see it these figures 

1234567890 
far enough apart that other figures may be placed be- 
fore and after each ef them. Then I place a before 
the 1 and explain to them that though the stand before 
the 1 still the number is not increased. Then I rub the 
before the 1 out, and place it after the 1, which makes 

10, if two naughts 100, if three 1000 and so on. In like 
manner I show them with all the figures. When this is 
done, to the first figure 1 another 1 is added which makes 

11, but if a is phiced between the two it make 101, 
but if after them 110 ; and in like manner I sfo through 
all the figures with them. 

After this is finished 1 2:ive them something to search 
for in the Testament or the Hymn Book. Those who are 
the readiest have something to expect either from me or 
at home. 

Since in reading, in order to read with understanding, it 
is necessary to give attention to the comma, but this is 
difficult for those who have not had much experience in 
reading, I have made this regulation. Whoever among 
the Testament scholars does not read along, but stops be- 
fore he comes to where the little point or mark stands, 
fails i, who reads over it without stopping in like manner 
fails i, and who repeats a word J. All the failures and 
especially what each one has failed are marked down. 
When all have recited, all who have failed must step out 

^ The Note-Board (Noten-Blank) was a black narrow board, upon 
each .side of which were cut the lines of three musical staves, and it 
was used in teaching the children music. 



108 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and stand in a row according to their failures. Those 
who have not tailed go together behind the table. The 
others sit down at the foot of the table. 

Ooncerning the letter -writing to each other. 

It may be mentioned that I attended to two schools as 
already said for twelve years, and also four summers (that 
is three months which I had free froin harvest) kept 
school in Germantown. The scholars in Skippack, when 
I went to the school in ^alford, gave me letters to take 
with me. When I came back again the Sal ford scholars 
did likewise. It was so arranged that those appointed to 
write to each other were of equal advancement. But if 
it happened that one was superior to the other, he then 
wrote to another to whom he thought himself equal. The 
superscription was only this, " My friendly greeting to 
N. N." The contents of the letter were a short rhyme, 
or a selection from the Bible, to which was added some- 
thing concerning their school exercises, what they had for 
a motto during the week, and where it was written and 
the like. He also gave a question in his letter which the 
other should answer with a quotation from the Holy 
Scriptures. I do not doubt but that two schoolmasters, 
whether they lived in the same place or not, if they had 
such regard for each other and were willing to inculcate 
affection in the young, and were inspired in this work 
by a heartfelt love of God and the common good of youth, 
could inspire love in this way. 

So much is circumstantially given as to the guiding and 
leading the young to learn spelling, and how they, step by 
step, must progress before they can be brought to the point 
which is kept in view for the honor of God and their wel- 
fare, and which at last follows. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 10^1 

What now belongs to his second question or request, viz. : 
How with diferent childreii of different training and 
according to the measure of transgression, punishment 
is increased or lessened. 

I would very willingly and heartily explain this in all 
points to the friend but, since it covers a wide fcope, I 
hardly know from its extent where I should begin or end. 
The reason is because the depraved condition of the young 
is apparent in so many things, and the provocations by 
which the young are influenced by those who are older, 
are manifold, and since God himself says, 1 Book Moses 
8, 21. " For the imagination of man's heart is evil from 
his youth," so that out of this unclean source, if daily 
efforts are not made to keep down and overcome the evil, 
there appears little prospect for improvement. The de- 
pravity is so great, and so increases at this time daily in 
all ways, that I see very clearly there is no longer any 
hope through one's own strength to make things any 
better. Where the Lord does not help to build tlie house, 
those who build thereat will all work in vain. The slap 
with the hand, the hazel switch, and birch rod are all 
means to prevent the breaking forth of the evil, but they 
are no means to change the depraved heart, which since 
the fall, naturally holds us all in such control that we are 
more inclined to evil than to good, so long as it remains in 
this condition unchanged, and it is not cleansed through the 
spirit of God. Still though the seed from youth up in man 
is such that he is inclined to evil, it could not so mature 
in him if our old injury was recognized and felt. We 
would then earnestly work that it might be rooted out 
and destroyed not only in ourselves but in our fellow men 
and our youth. While this old injury and serpent's bite 



110 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

is the same, we should all seek earnestly for the right 
cure for this wound, and also the means which he has 
ordered for us to use for such injury, and turn to the 
remedy for ourselves and our youth, since without this 
remedy we cannot have true peace, but must feel to our 
everlasting destruction the gnawing worm which, through 
this bite of the snake, at all times gnaws our conscience. 
May God in his mercy support us all that we do not ne- 
glect to receive the promise for our peace, and no one of 
us remain behind ! Amen, 

Though, as before said, to give all of the details would 
carry me too far, I will show some of them to the friend, 
and also the means I have adopted to use against the 
trouble, but which means cannot cure. To the Lord 
of all liords who has all in his hand, and for whose help 
and support we must in such circumstances pray with all 
our hearts, belongs the honor when we f^ee that there is 
some improvement. 

Among many children cursing and swearing are very 
common, and they appear in shameful words of all sorts 
and kinds. If the evil and bad habit is not earnestly 
opposed, this leaven will leaven the whole loaf. 

Those children who are guilty of it, are first asked 
whether they understand what they say ; and it 
often appears as cleai* as day that they do not understand 
the meaning. I then ask them whether they formed the 
words themselves, or hoard others use them. Many 
children say that he or sJte said so. I ask them further 
why they also used them. Generally the answer is again, 
because he or she said so. So I find a want of knowl- 
edge in ninny of them that thfy know not why they 
do it. I then explain to them that they consider 
well, and speak no more such wonl.s, and tliat it 
is against God's word and will ; also if they should hear 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. Ill 

Mm or her from whom they heard these curses again 
make use of them, they should say to him that he doubly 
sinned since they had been punished in school, for learn- 
ing such curses from him. If these children promise that 
they will use such words no more, they go free for the 
first time ; but if it is found that after being warned they 
become hardened in this evil custom, and the fact is cer- 
tainly established that they have again used such words, 
they are placed alone for along time upon the punishment 
bench, and as a sign that they are in punishment they 
wear a yoke around the neck. If they then promise that 
they will be more careful in the future, they go free wnth 
a few blows from the hand. If they come again upon 
the punishment bench for cursing, the punishment is in- 
creased, and they are not let free without bail, and the 
more guilty they are the more bail they must give. The 
bail have this to consider, that they remind them of their 
promise, and warn them with all earnestness to be careful 
and keep themselves from punishment. This is the 
bridle and bit to be put in the mouth, for such bad habits, 
but a change of the heart must come from a higher hand, 
and must be sought with earnest supplication from Him 
who proves the heart and loins. It must also be shown 
to them, and all scholars, out of God's word for a warning 
what a heavy burden this is, if persisted in willfully unto the 
end, and that men must give a reckoning at the last day 
of every idle word they have spoken. These and 
similar injunctions they must search for and read, and for 
further instruction a hymn or psalm expressing the same 
thought is given them to sing. 

Up to this time Pennsylvania has not been so much 
infected with this evil and poisonous contagion as those 
lands which have been long overrun nnd harrassed with 
bloody wars. Among the rough and uncouth soldiery 



112 HISTORICAL AND RIOGPvAPHlCA L SKETCHES. 

neither culture nor decency is considered, but, vvilbout 
fear of God or man, evil habits aie practiced witli words, 
demeanor and works, through which means the poor 
innocent youth are depraved, and cursing and swearing 
are so common that they are by many no longer consid- 
ered a sin — that is, by older persons. The poor innocent 
youth learn to repeat these things. They are, as we all 
know, born into the world amid bad surroundings. Thej 
have nothing to say about it, so that we cannot blame 
them lor it, when they bring such uses of shameful words 
into the world with them. Ah, no ! when they learn to 
speak they learn to repeat the words they hear. The 
understanding is not there. They do not know whether 
they, repeat good or evil. Since, as has been said, this 
land, under God's protection, has been kept free from the- 
ravages of war, and many of the first settlers and begin- 
ners here were men who had God before their eyes, and 
walked in the fear of Him, up to this time there has been 
little heard of such words among young or old. But the 
more men come to this land the more of such wares come 
along, and if they are not yet recognized as valid and 
merchantable wares, there is so much of a mixture that 
the more time passes the more of them there are used, to 
the great injury of the youth coming along. 

Secondly. The great depravity of the young shows 
itself in this, that when they have done something wrong 
and are spoken to about it, they usually try to hid»' and 
conceal it with lies. If this is not earnestly punished in 
children and such snake poison removed, they will be by 
it betrayed into destruction, through time and eternity. 
Therefore parents and schoolmasters, so far as thev seek 
to further the welfare and happiness of the poor childi'en, 
will be earnestly solicitous to guard against it early. 
This evil habit is very old and appeared just after the 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AKD HTS WORKS. 113- 

fall in Adam's iirst-born son Cain, wben he was asked by 
God concerning the great sin he had committed toward 
his pious brother Abel, " Where is thy brother Abel ? " 
He answered, against his knowledge and conscience, " I 
know not. Am I my brother's keeper? " 1 Moses, 4, 9. 
So it can be seen that the seed of the snake appeared soon 
after the fall, and still daily brings fruit to death and 
destruction. It will go hard with parents and school- 
masters to answer, if they do not earnestly strive to keep 
the young entrusted to tliem from it. How hard this 
often lies upon my heart no one knows better than 
myself. The scholar's hymn added hereto will to some 
extent show it.^ The Lord Jesus Himself says, John viii, 
44, that the Devil is the father of lies. The Scribes and 
the Pharisees outwardly had the appearance of piety, but 
what they did was not done in truth, to the honor of 
God, but they sought their own honor, and so they 
adorned their cause with lies against the truth. Where- 
fore Christ, as is to be seen in the said verse, addressed 
them with the following words : " Ye are of your father^ 
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He 
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth because there is no truth in him. When he 
speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar 
and the father of it," So run the Lord Jesus's own 
words. John the Baptist calls them, for such evil work, 
a generation of vipers, as is to be seen in Matthew 3, 7. 
Read further and consider earnestly and with thought 
the 23d chapter of Matthew, and you will find what woe, 
lying and credit-seeking works bring upon themselves. 
The last judgment of woe is given in the 33d verse in the 

' This hymn lias been omitted in the translation. 



114 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

following words : "Ye serpents ! ye generation of vipers I 
'how can ye escape the damnation of hell? " 

When these evil roots and branches have been destroyed 
in the young, and instead thereof something good is 
implanted, and God is earnestly besought mercifully to 
give success to the }.)lanting and watering, there is hope 
that with His help something good for the young may be 
iiccomplished. The young are themselves at all times 
most to be excused, since they are like wax which may be 
moulded in any form. But if such evil roots are permit- 
ted to grow up and increase unhindered, there will be evil 
fruits upon the grown-up trees, and such men will be 
produced as are given up to woe and hell-fire, since the 
axe is already laid at the root of the tree, and the tree 
which produces not good fruit is cut down and thrown 
into the fire. Now a lie is such fruit as belongs in the 
fire, it is the den in which other sins are concealed, so 
that they cannot be seen or found. In order that a 
deceiver may continue his deception and still be an honor- 
able man, or be so considered, he covers his doings with 
lies. That a whore may have the honor of a maiden she 
uses lies. A thief, murderer and adulterer does the same, 
and if witnesses enough do not appear, may sj defend and 
cover up tlie afi^iir with lies that he still appears before 
the world an honorable man. But where, during the 
time for repentance, such sins are not admitted and 
repented before God, this cover cannot conceal them. In 
the end the burden must be borne. He who denies his 
sins shall not prosper, Imt he who confesses and forsakes 
them shall receive forgiveness. Proverbs 2, 13 ; 1 Ep. 
John, 189. 

Concerning the means to prevent these evil growths 
from getting the upper-hand, I see clearly that it is not 
in the power of man to destroy the root in the ground. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 115 

God alone through the strength of his Holy Spirit must 
gives us this blessing. Still it is the duty of preachers 
and elders, parents and schoolmasters, first to themselves 
and their neighbors and fellow men, and then to the young 
to work as much as they are able through God's mercy, 
not only to make this stained coat hateful, but that it 
may be taken off. And in my opinion the first and most 
necessary means is a heartfelt and fervent prayer to God, 
and since there is a want of knowledge and understanding 
among the young so that they do not perceive the gieat 
injury, it is necessary first to remind them in heart-felt 
love, what actions lead us to God, and what drive us 
from him ; what have in themselves an odor of life to life, 
and what an odor of death to death ; how good deeds flow 
from good, and again to good and lead again to their good 
source, and how on the other hand evil comes in the begin- 
ning from evil, and leads again to evil, and travels back 
to its evil source; and that good is rewarded with good, 
and evil with evil ; that God is the highest good and the 
origin of all good, and that Satan is the evil enemy 
through whom all evil is founded ; and how God is a God 
of truth, and on the other hand Satan is the father of lies ; 
and that man must therefore love the truth, and must 
exert himself for it with words and works if he would 
come to God in Pleaven and be happy forever, since liars 
have their part in hell and the fiery pool. When these and 
similar explanations have been made to them, the 
evidences of the Holy Scriptures which show these things 
ought to be made known lo them. It is further necessary 
to place before them that in so far in the future as they 
do not take care to protect themselves from such evil con- 
duct, but do such things either heedlessly or designedly, 
one would be in danger of his own soul if he let them go 
unpunished. If after this warning a like transgression 



116 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

occurs and is apparent, and afterward the scholar lies 
purposely, the punishment for the transgression is divided 
into two parts, and the lie is punished first and hardest. 
For the lie no bail will be received, for the transgression 
itself the punishment may be lessened through bail, or with- 
out bail upon a promis.e to be careful in the future. After 
the infliction of the punishment, the punishment threat- 
ened for such misdeeds in the Scriptures is repeated to 
them. 

The disposition to steal shows itself early in some 
children, and when they are caught at it they generally 
make use of lies and say that th's cr that person gave the 
thing to them, or traded with them for it, or that they 
found it, and these things are often so confused and 
twisted together that one has trouble to get them straight- 
ened out. To protect against it I have made an order 
that no child at school, or on the road, or at home without 
my knowledge, and that of their parents, shall give away 
or trade anything ; also that whenever they find anything 
in school, or on the road, or wherever it may be, they must 
show it to me. What they find belongs not to them for 
themselves, but to him who lost it ; but if after it has 
been made known a long; time he cannot be discovered, it 
belongs to him who found it. Through these means it has 
been brought about, praise God ! that there is little ne- 
cessity for punishment on this account. 

Ambition appears among children, but not at all in 
proportion to that which shows itself among the mature 
and the old, who often, for a bare seat of honor and 
title, bring about much war and shedding of blood. Not 
only among persons of high position but among men of 
little standing it appears. Yes, even the little word thou 
ofttimes causes contention and fighting. But among child- 
ren this evil is much more easy to overcome. If a child is 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 117 

found who will l;ave the upper seat, and abandons his 
own place, and forces himself to the uppernaost without 
any right to it in reading, writing, &c., lie is put at the 
bottom for a warning until, by industry, he again reaches 
the place that belongs to him. When the children once 
see this the difficulty is already cured. But who will 
bring down the old like the children, if they will not 
humble themselves according to the teaching of Christ? 
Matthew 20, 26, 27; ch. 23, 12. Luke U. 11; ch. 
18, 14. 

Children are much easier to bring together after their 
quarrels than are grown persons. When children quarrel 
with each other, either in school or on the road, and it is 
found on examination that there was wrong on both 
sides and each is blamable, the transgression and the 
deserved punishment are put before, and adjudged to 
each, if they do not agree together. It is said to them 
that if they are not inclined to come into accord, they 
shall be separated at once from the other scholars and 
shall sit together upon the punishment bench until they 
do agree, and if not the merited punishment will follow. 
But it rarely goes so far that they separate and go upon 
the punishment bench ; rather they stretch their hands to 
each other and the whole thing is over and the process 
has an end. If this happened so easily among the old 
and were so soon forgotten and forgiven as among chil- 
dren, then would 

" Durch Processen der Beutel nicht leer 
Dem Advocaten der Beutel nicht schwer. 
Das nageiid Gewissen kam auch zu Ruh, 
Liebe und Fried kam auch dazu ; 
Es brachte nicht so viel Gequal 
Vor Leib und Seel." 



lis HISTORICAL A:>D BI<>3FA?HICAL SKETCHES. 

It IS ttmher asKev.1 oi me ia hi-* letter to give informa- 
tion 

Ukrouah. K-hat means I keep the children from talking 
and bring them into quiet. 

Hereufon I answer that this is the hardest lesson for 
children and one which they do not learn willingly. It 
is a good while before they learn to speak and when they 
once can '^o it they are not easily kept from it. Bat in 
order that something crierly may be constructed and for 
improvement be implanted among children in school, it is 
necessary that speaking have its time and quiet also have 
its time, although it is so hard for chiLlren to accustom 
themselves to this rule. And it appears that we older ones 
have ourselves not properly leamei this lesson that speaking 
and silence have each irs time, which we ought to take 
more into thought in speaking and silence. That little 
member the tongue is not so easily tamed. It cannot be 
corrected with rods like the other members of the body. 
And the misdeeds which happen in words are performed 
by the tongue according to the state and inner condition 
of the heart- Matthew 12. 25. Although the talking 
and speaking, which children use among each other, is 
r ' ■ - r " - led by man v as verv wrong, nevertheless nothing 
I an be done imless. as has been said, speaking and 

silence have each its time. In order to bring them to 
it, many means and ways have b^n heretofore tried which 
have done well for a time, bat when they became accustomed 
to them some change became necessarv to bring them into 
qoiet. My rule and way, which I hitherto have used to 
bring them to silence, is this : First when th*^ir lesson is 
given to them, according to the use and accustom here as 
well as '- ^ _ - - - learn :' ' ^^- : lertokeep 

them toj iT I go . here and 



CHEISTOrHE^ I-OCK A5D HI? " OEKS. 119 

*here until I think they have had time enough to learn 
their lesson. Then I make a stroke with tiie rod on the 
bench or table. It is at once still. Then the first one 
begins to rep»eat. Then one who has been selected must 
stand as a watcher npon a bench or other raised place so 
that he can look over them all. He must call oat the 
first and last names, and after he has called them ont 
write them up, of all who chatter, or learn loud, or do any- 
thing else which is forbidden. But since it has been found 
when they are used one after the other for watchers, some 
point out according to their likes or dislikes, those who 
have been found untrue are removed, and in the future 
are not put any more in this place, even if they announce 
and promise in the future to make a true report. In like 
manner if any one is put upon the punishment bench for 
lying he is not chosen for watching, although he has con- 
ducted himself well for a considerable time and nothin<r 
similar has been sf^en. When then the school is p»rovided 
with a true watcher it is still, so that one can go on with 
the recitation and resume something instructive with them. 
If it remain so, after the recitation is finished anv delin- 
quency is let go and forgotten, but if, as sometimes happens 
and is perceived, they pay little attention, those whom the 
watcher points out must walk out and sit in a row on the 
punishment bench. Then the choice is given to these 
whether they would rather one after the other hare the 
yoke upon their necks or receive a blow upon their hands. 
They very seldom choose the yoke and generally stretch 
out their hands for the rod. This is at his request the 
infonaation how I can bring them from talking to siienee, 
but It is entirely foreign to my wish herewith to prescribe 
a rule for another, according to which he should regulate 
himself. Oh no, each one must in this miTier re^n^aie 



120 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPIIKJAL SKETCHES. 

and conduct his householding as he thinks it best to answer 
before God and man. 

But should ray hitherto explained school exercise which 
I have here written at request, and not for my own 
inclination, be taken for irregular because it in many 
things is contrary to the usual method in Germany and 
r)ther places, I give this much in explanation. In this 
Province, among the free inhabitants of Pennsylvania, it 
is different in many things which concern a school. Him 
to whom a control of schools is given in Germany, by the 
high authorities, and who is fixed fast upon his school 
seat, the common people cannot easily remove. There- 
fore there is not so much danger to him from them, if he 
has been too hard upon the youth. Still I readily con- 
fess, if I were estabhshed in that high position, it would be 
in fact upon the condition that if power were given by 
God or the high authorities to use severity, it would 
only be given for improvement and not for injury. Expe- 
rience in keeping school shows that a child,, which is 
timid, if it is punished severely either with words or with 
the rod, is thereby more injured than benefitted. If such 
a child is to be improved it must be by other means. In 
the same way a child that is dumb is more injured by 
blows than improved. A child which at home is treated 
with blows and is accustomed to them will not at school 
be made right by blows, but still worse. If such children 
are to be made better it must be in some other way. 
Obstinate children, who have no hesitation in doing 
wrong, must be punished sharply with the rod, and at the 
same time addressed with earnest exhortation from the 
Word of God, to see whether the heart can be reached. 
But the diffident and dumb in learning must be advanced 
by other means, so that as much as possible it may be 
done willingly and they may be inspired with a love of 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS, 121 

learning. When the children have reached this point it 
is no longer so hard with them or the schoolmaster. 
When all who stand with me in this callincr consider 
rightly how dear such young souls are in the eyes of God, 
and that we must give an account of our housekeeping, 
although they may have the power to punish, they will 
much rather work with me to bring the young into such 
a state that they will do wilHngly out of love what before 
they had to be driven to with the rod. Then the words 
Thou shall and must, and the words I ■ folloiu with 
pleasure will have a different tone. At the sound of the 
last the schoolmaster will use no rods and they will be 
more pleasant to hear and easier to answer. It is said, 
Ps. ex, 3, " Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy 
power, in the beauties of holiness." What is done wil- 
lingly, in bodily and spiritual work, needs no force and 
driving. Tt is further said, Ps. xxxii, 8, 9, "I will 
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt 
go ; I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the 
horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose 
mouth must be held in with bit and bridle." From this 
it can be seen that those who will be instructed and 
guided by the eye have no need of bit and bridle. This 
difference can be seen in unreasoning beasts. One wag- 
oner does not use half as hard shouts, scourges and blows 
as another, and yet drives as hard or even harder over 
mountain and valley, and when the work is done the 
willing horses and the wagoner have had it the easier. 
The horses have felt less blows and it has not been 
necessary for the wagoner to drive by punishment. They 
have done willingly what others must have done through 
seven ty.-"" 

' All of this is the more admirable because in such strong con- 
trast with the ordinary methcds of that period, both among English 



122 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

What further the friend desires me to inform him. 

Hoiu I treat the children with love that they both love 

and fear me. 

I answer that concerning this point I have nothing to 
claim for myself in the slightest. 1 consider it an entirely 
undeserved mercy of God, if there is anything herein 
fruitful accomplished between myself and tlie young, 
whether in learning or the exercises of piety. In the first 
place I have to thank the dear Lord heartily that after I 

and Germans. About the same time the father of Nathaniel Greene, 
who was a Quaker preacher, felt that duty required him to flog his 
son with a horsewhip. 

" Students" he said " like horses on the road, 
Must be well lashed, before they take the load ; 
They may be willing for a time to run, 
But you must whip them, ere the work be done." 

Crabbe's Schoolmaster. 

Cooper's History of the Rod, pp. 429-457, says "Shrewsbury 
school, about the beginning of the present century, was presided over 
by a great flogger in the person of Dr. Butler." " Dr. Parr * * 
had a firm belief in the utility of the birch. At his school in Nor- 
wich, there was usually a flogging levee before the classes were dis- 
missed. His rod maker was a man who had been sentenced to be 
hanged." 

" Flogging went on briskly at Rugby in Dr. James' time, about 
1780, and there was in addition plenty of caning on hand." 
Charles Lamb says " I have been called out of my bed and waked 
for the purpose in the coldest winter nights, and this not once but 
night after night, in my shirt, to receive the discipline of a leathern 
thong.'' In Scotland we are told, "The dull boys were birched 
for their own demerits and the bright lads suffered for the de- 
ficiencies of their fellows. 

The same authority, Cooj^er, says that in England at the close of 
the last century, " I have seen marriageable girls flogged for breaches 
of discipline, before all their school fellows, the necessary portions 
of their dress being removed." 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 123 

have been dedicated by Him to this calling, he has also 
given me the mercy that I have an especial love for the 
young. Were it not for this love it would be an unbear- 
able burden, but love bears and is not weary. If a 
natural mother had no love for her children, the raising of 
children, what a mother must do through all the circum- 
stances of childhood, would be an unbearable burden, but 
the love which she feels for her children makes the 
burden lip;ht. When the apostle Paul wishes to rightly 
express his love to the community at Thessaly, he uses 
these words, 1 Thess. ii, 1st to the end of the 13th verse. 
In the 7th and 8th verses he compares this love to that 
of a mother when he says : " But we were gentle among 
you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children : 

So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing 
to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, 
but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." 

My worthy friend, the words of the apostle express 
such a love that. he was willing to impart not only the 
gospel but his own life. Well would it have been if all 
the preachers in the so-called Christianity, from the 
apostles' time down to the present, had remained in such 
a state of heartfelt love. In these words of the apostle 
all have had an excellent example. He calls upon "us all 
and says : 

" Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark 
them which walk so, as ye love us for an ensample." 
Phil, iii, 17. But how it stood in the apostles' time, and 
how it at present stands in the so-called Christianity, 
those can see best to whom the eyes of the spirit are 
opened. 

I will let it go and explain my opinion to the friend at 
his request. I doubt not the friend has good views for 
the help of the young. Suppose now it was a natural 



124 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

mother who entertained such views as to the training she 
had adopted in love for her children, and she should be 
inclined to put in writing how she trained them, so that 
after her deatli the scales might be balanced the same 
way ; but the children after her death should receive 
another mother, who should lightly say to them ; " Your 
former mother has trained you according to her views, 
but I will train and govern yon according to my views." 
Then what the former mother has done out of the fullness 
of love, for the good of her children, could help but little. 
Still the mother has done her duty as the apostle did his, 
with the words, " Brethren, be followers together of me, 
and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an 
ensample." Those, now, who according to the contents 
of the said 17th verse, will not follow, but rather do the 
opposite, as the 18th and 19th verses show, the apostle 
said, with weeping, follow their own course. Still the 
apostle did his duty and cleared his soul. 

I have explained to the friend, at his request, as has 
been said, how I treat the children with love, that they 
both love and fear me, and that I claim no honor for 
myself in it. 

Love is a gift of God, and according as a man desires 
it and strives for it, from his heart, he can, through God's 
mercy, be a participator in it, and according as he proves 
and uses it, can it be lessened or increased. Still this 
much information may be given — through what furthering 
or hindering attributes a man can have part or loss in 
love. The footsteps of God, when we look after the right 
love, point out that His love is common and given to all 
His creatures. He lets the sun rise over the evil and the 
good, and lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust. 
So far now as a man will be a participator in the love of 
God, and increase and grow therein, must he follow these 



OHRISTOPHEE, DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 125 

footsteps. They will lead and conduct him in love, from 
love to love, throngli consideration of the creatures and 
their preservation. 

The great work of love in the redemption of the human 
race is also general. " If it were generally received by us 
children of men and believed, and we should follow the 
footsteps of Christ in loA^e, we would, through the love of 
Christ, be fast grounded, so that we, with all the holy, 
could grasp the breadth and length, the depth and height, 
of such everlasting love, and would also recognize and 
understand that it would be better to have the love of 
Christ than all knowledge. All Christians are called 
upon to follow the footsteps of Christ, and to follow them 
in the love of which he has left us an example, 1 Peter, 
ii, 21 ; John xiii, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and other places 
naore. If, on the other hand, we recognize it all, but 
follow the footsteps of the world in the lusts of the eye 
and the flesh, and lead a proud life, we can hope for little 
growth in the love of God, let him be who he will, and 
entitled as he will, even if he have before the world the 
most Christian title. Since, if any man love the world, 
the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John ii, 15. 

Diese Weltliebe ist niclit rein, 
Sie fuehrt auch nicht in's Allgemein, 
Sie fuehret nur in's Mein und Dein. 
So lang das Mein und Dein geehrt, 
So lang bleibt diese Lieb bewaehrt, 
Kommt's Eigenlieb und Ehr zu nab, 
So ist gleich Krieg und Aufrubr da. 

The natural sparks of love whicli, after the fall, God has 
not permitted to be entirely quenched, but has allowed to 
appear and be seen in reasoning and unreasoning creatures 
according to their natures and attributes, will also, through 
improper worldly love in many respects be weakened and 



126 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

overcome. I will only cite the natural love among natu- 
ral men. Tliey are impelled through these sparks of love- 
in their hearts to unite with each other in marriage. As- 
long as these natural sparks of love between two married 
people have the upper hand, this love will not be lessened, 
but increased, so that the longer they are in such union 
the closer they are bound together, live together, beget 
children, and draw nearer to each other, since this is im- 
planted in them in this natural love even among heathens 
and similar Dations. Without this the human race could not 
be increased in a lawful way. There is also a natural 
love implanted in unreasoning creatures, which leads 
them to take care of their young. Christians have not 
only the natural impulse to take care of their children, 
but they also obey God's will in training and instruction, 
according to God's earnest command, in the Old and New 
Testament. And where such training of children is con- 
ducted by parents and schoolmasters through heart-felt 
love, accordino; to the Christian's dutv to further the 
honor of God, and the common good of the young, it will 
not remain without blessing. Love, training and instruc- 
tion in the Lord form together a tri|)ple cord, which is 
not easily torn. If parents and schoolmasters show an 
upright and fatherly love to the children, it is to be hoped 
that it will produce an upright, filial love on the part of 
the children. When such a love on the part of the chil- 
dren comes to the front it is to be hoped that if this seed 
is not choked off, but continues to increase, it will produce 
a blessed harvest in the end. But if freedom overpowers 
this love, and lights and kindles a wild fire, there must, 
as has been said, be brought together, love, training and 
instruction in the Lord, and they must be used for a con- 
tinual scourge or rod of love, in the hope that thereout 
love, fear and obedience will arise, but all through God's 



CTTRISTOPHEE DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 127 

merciful blessing, help and support, since he must be 
besought to give aid in the planting and watering. 

An Gottes Gnad unci mildem Segen, 
1st alles ganz und gar gelegen ; 
Und ohne 8eine Hilf ' und Gunst, 
1st aller Mensclien Tliun umsonst. 

The murderer of souls all the time seeks to combat the 
true upright love with his false Delilah, the worldly love, 
which with its burden of lust is dead to the good, so that 
he may crush out the natural sparks of love which were 
remaining after the fall. Already by many have they 
been crushed out, whereupon all ungodly ways followed, 
through which the wrath of God has been and will be 
heaped up upon the day of wrath, as has been seen in the 
early world, and also in Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
Dathan and Abiram, as also in the destruction of Jeru- 
salem and other places more. What works of darkness 
have for a long time been done, the Holy Scriptures show- 
in many places. I will only cite them shortly. Rora. i, to 
the end ; 2 Peter ii, verses 4, 5 and 6 ; Jude i, 7. And what- 
similar works in our times are done daily, daily experience 
teaches us. .If the state and duty of a Christian are 
placed in the right balance in the marriage relations, it 
results that love must, in all things, give the outcome, 
and where this is wanting there will be also much want- 
ing as to training and good order, and instruction in the 
Lord, in the care of children by parents and schoolmasters. 
It has its authority in Holy Scripture that the husband is 
the head of the wife, but it is also well upon the part of 
the husband to consider what the apostle Paul makes 
known to married Christians when he says, 1 Cor. xi, 
verse 3 : 

" But I would have you know that the head of every 



128 HISTORICAL AND BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man." 
It is indeed not to be doubted if the man follows his head 
in the teachinsfand life of Christ, a,nd the woman the man, 
the children will follow their parents and schoolmasters 
and be obedient. In this way upright love produces a 
sure outcome through Christian duty, and still has nothing 
more been done in the whole than what ought to be done, 
and happiness is and still remains an undeserved gift of 
mercy. Still all Christian duties are steps upon which we 
must place our feet, and tread from step to step. If we 
wish to be participators the Lord Jesus has left behind 
for us many teachings and warnings. Although no man 
can deny God's mercy to another since the one as well as 
the other cannot live without God's mercy, there is still 
found in the teaching of Christ an express difference be- 
tween the foolish man and foolish maid, and the wise man 
and wise maid, between tlie true and untrue knights. 
Between these two is Ibund unequal work and also un- 
equal reward of mercy and condemnation. It is far better 
that a man here in the time of mercy go upon the way in 
which God has promised and offered his mercy, than that 
man should come to sin against God's mercy and become 
hardened in sin so that by this the mercy will be the 
greater. See Rom. vi, verses 1,2. It is, as has been said, 
the duty of a Christian to bring it about, as I confess and 
believe, that Christ is the head of His community and also 
the head of each man. It follows from this that it is a man's 
bounden duty that what his head lord and master teaches 
him he also should teach his wife, to whom he is given 
for a head. If then both Christian married people seek 
from their hearts the happiness and welfare of their chil- 
dren, they will teach their childrf^n the commands of God 
which he has lelt behind for us in writing. 1 Mos. xviii, 
19; 5 Mos. vi, verses 6, 7; Ps. Ixxviii, verses 1, 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 129 

2 3, 4 ; Epli. vi, 4; Goloss. iii, 21 and other places 
more. 

Concerning the duty of parents to their children, even 
this may be farthered by a schoolmaster to whom the 
young are handed over and entrusted. And although we 
are placed so much at the head over these youths, Christ 
is also our head and according to his command we must 
govern and conduct our householding with the young. 
The Lord Jesus when he came to this world to seek and 
to make happy what was lost, called the children, especi- 
ally out of love, to himself, blessed them, embraced them 
and promised them the kingdom of heaven, as can be seen 
Mark ix, verses 36, 37. Therefore it cannot turn out well 
with ourselves if we act tyranically with them, although 
they must be subjected to training and instruction in the 
Lord. A¥e should weigh further earnestly and with 
thought what instruction the Lord Jesus gave to his Dis- 
ciples, which was left behind in writing as instruction for 
us all who call ourselves Christians, which can be read in 
the Gospel of St. Matthew, xviii, from the 1st to the 
6th verse. " At the same time came the disciples unto 
Jesus, saying. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven ? And Jesus called a little child to him and set 
him in the midst of them. And said, Verily I say unto 
you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoso- 
ever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the 
same is greatest in the kinfidora of heaven. And whoso 
shall receive one such little child in my name, re- 
ceiveth me. But, whoso sliall ofiend one of these little 
ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a 
millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were 
drowned in the depth of the sea." From these words of 
the Lord Jesus we all have enough to learn. If we wish 



130 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

to come into the kingdom of heaven and to be eternally 
happy, we must not picture to ourselves that the way 
there is to show enmity to children, or to reprove and punish 
them, because they have not in words and gestures given 
us enough honor or made for us enough compliments. Oh, 
no. This is not the way to heaven. But if we turn away 
from our own ambition according to the instruction of 
Christ, and become as humble as children, it not only aids 
us to the kingdom of God, but it brings about a child-like 
union which can be much more useful than all the hold- 
ing up of ourselves, since, he who raises himself here will 
be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be raised 
up. 

There are, beside, very many other duties to be per- 
formed, which are useful and beneficial in implanting 
love, through which the honor of God may be increased, 
and the common good be furthered. There are also many 
things to be added, which implant just the opposite, 
through which the honor of God is lessened, and one's 
own depraved honor increased, to the harm and injury of 
the common good. 

But I will turn away from this point and proceed to 
the explanation of others. 

Now jolloxo some other school exercises to which I am 
impelled, not for myself, hut for the honor of the one 
Ood and His loord, in the performance of my duty, and 
in order to bring the young entrusted to me into 
instruction and practice. 

In the first place you may be informed during the 
time I have kept school here in this country, I have 
received, in the school, children of different religious 
opinions and practice, so that I have not been able to 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 131 

instruct them in one form of the Catechism. This I have 
not been compelled to do, but when they were sufficiently 
advanced in reading, writing and similar school exercises^ 
the parents at home have themselves taught the children 
the Catechism. But the freedom has been given to me, 
in singing, to sing hymns and psalms. So I have then 
sung with them both hymns and psalms, since of both 
kinds, viz. : of spiritual hymns and psalms, the Holy 
Ghost is the master builder. 

Togetlier with this exercise, I have labored to bring it 
about that the New Testament might be well known to 
them by searching and looking through the chapters, and 
it has been very successfully accomplished, so that when 
I use a quotation for their instruction and information,, 
thev themselves, without being shown, can read this 
quotation. When this door has been opened for them I 
have endeavored to bring them further, so that they 
might collect richly the little flowers in this noble garden 
of paradise, the Holy Scriptures, not onl}^ because of their 
beauty, but also because ol their lovely odor, and I have shown 
to them so much as I, according to my little ability, have 
been able, what an odor of life to life they have in them- 
selves, if we so use them as they are offered to us, accord- 
ing to their strength and value. Also, what an odor of 
death to death the opposite has in itself, and that they 
may see and have a knowledge of both facts from the 
Holy Scriptures ; since, just as the truth has life ia 
itself, and there is an odor of life to life when we follow 
the truth, so, on the other hand, falsehood has death in 
itself, and is an odor of death to death, and leads to death 
when we follow falsehood. The part and reward of the 
liar is the fiery pool, which is the other death. Rev. xxi,. 
8. But the truth makes him who follows it free there- 
from. See hereupon in the Gospel of St. John, eh. viii„ 



132 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

verses 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. Just as these acts are contrary 
to each other, so that the one has Hfe in itself, and leads 
to life, and the other has death in itself, so also is it of 
love and its acts which 4s in like manner an odor of life 
to life, for him who follows. But hatred, envy and hos- 
tility have an odor of death to death in themselves, and 
lead him who follows to death and destruction, since they 
are the opposite and contrary to love. This is also the 
•case with belief and unbelief, with mercy and inclemency, 
with righteousness and unrighteousness, with chastity and 
impurity, with humility and pride. Upon the whole all 
godly acts have life in themselves, and bear an odor of 
•everlasting life with them. He who will labor and let 
himself be governed by their strength and operation 
•comes through them to be born again, out of death into 
life. On the other hand, all ungodly ways, together 
with their acts, give out an odor of death, a deathly odor 
of death to death, and damnation to him who follows 
them in deatli. 

When all this is explained to the children, they are re- 
<][uired to search for the quotations concerning this or that 
fact as it is desired of them. He then who has the first quo- 
tation, concerning such fact so put before them, walks 
■out and holds up his hand, and as they find the quota- 
tions concerning this fact, they walk to the front one 
after the other and put themselves in a row, the one 
behind the other, the boys together and the girls together. 
This continues until they have found all the quotations. 
Then the first reads his quotation. But if it is found that 
^ny one in the row also has th<^ same quotation which has 
been read, he walks out of tlie row and seeks for another, 
and then goes again to the bottom of the row. In this 
way therefore it happens that the beautiful honey-flowers 
Are all sought out. It is also found from this exercise that 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 133 

the more quotations there are found, concerning such fact 
requested of them, the more the truth comes plainly before 
them, so that one quotation not only fixes others but is 
itself explained and made clear. But after the reading of 
the quotations has been finished, some questions are put to 
them which they themselves answer. Then they again point 
out these quotations and recapitulate them. Then usually 
many remarks are suggested and clear explanations given 
of these quotations, partly for their instruction, partly for 
their faith and strengthening of their belief, and partly as 
to punishment and for a warning. When they have been 
well exercised in seeking they are presently brought to 
the proof, and reminded that the outer seeking ought not 
to be rejected, but still that they should prove themselves 
in another way. They are then told to all sit still and pay 
attention to their thoughts, and dismiss all idle thoughts, 
but the first quotation which comes into their minds they 
must search for and read. In the course of this exercise 
I have often been compelled to wonder how God has pre- 
pared for himself praise, out of the mouths of babes and 
sucklings, in order to overpower the enemy in his pursuits. 
It is God's earnest command that we should impress 
upon children the commands which he has given us, and 
should bring them up in the way and instruction of the 
Lord, and there are found in the Holy Scriptures many 
beautiful and valuable witnesses of the one God and his 
godly works ; how God has shown himself in his omnipo- 
tence and through the creation of all things ; and has 
created and made all things through the word of his 
strength and through the spirit of his mouth, through his 
unsearchable omnipotence and wisdom. The Holy Scrip- 
tures give further witness how, through the envy of the 
devil, death and temporal and everlasting destruction came 
into the world, and how the human race, through the com- 



134 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ing of Satan, fell into sin and transgression and that through 
this transgression sin came into the world, and through 
sin, death, and that death has become the lot of all men 
because they have sinned. The Holy Scriptures instruct 
us further that God in his great mercy has given the 
promise to the fallen human race, that the seed of the 
woman should bruise the head of the serpent, through 
which they again should be redeemed from the curse and 
damnation, through an everlasting redemption. Of all 
this there are found in the Holy Scriptures many consoling 
promises, which were written and made to our fathers, 
from time to time, through Moses and the prophets, partly 
through figures and pictures, partly through visions and 
prophecies, of which in the Holy Scripture of the Old 
Testament very many witnesses are at hand. Further, 
how through Christ as the promised seed of the woman, 
in the fullness of time, by the working of the Holy Ghost, 
this, according to human understanding, unfathomable, 
godly, secret work of the redemption, through the birth, 
teaching and life, suffering, death, resurrection, and en- 
trance into heaven of Christ, was performed and completed. 
Of all this the Holy Scripture of the New Testament gives 
us complete information. There is also found therein 
express instruction how we can participate in such re- 
demption, and how a Christian must follow his calling to 
which he has been called, through the exercise of piety 
in Christian virtue, and must place his feet and steps on 
the daily increase and growth in teaching and life, after 
the example of Him who has created and redeemed him. 
I repeat that of all this the teaching of Christ and His 
apostles, in the New Testament informs and instructs us. 
Now if it should be put down in writing with particu- 
larity concerning each exercise, according to the above 
outline, how it is made useful for the teaching and 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AKD HIS WORKS. 135 

instruction of the youth, that they search for the quotation 
of this or that fact, as they are requested, and afterward 
how each reads his quotation, and questions are put to them, 
and each question is answered with a quotation, since one 
quotation partly strengthens, partly clears and explains 
another ; to give in writing information of all this, as I 
have been requested to do, would require a great deal of 
space. But since the Holy Scriptures hold and contain in 
themselves all, it is all there, to be searched for and to be 
found, and since in Christ Jesus all treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge lie hidden, of which the Holy Scriptures 
give us information, I know well that if I and other men 
seek therein with hope, and we seek from our whole 
hearts, we shall also find what we need Jer. xxix, 13 ; 
Matt, vii, 7. The world seeks earnestly and eagerly after 
honor and goods, after gold, silver, precious stones, and 
similar treasures, which b}^ the world are held in great 
estimation and value, but which still are perishable, and 
with the imperishable treasures which God offers to us in 
His word, are not to be compared. The discovery will 
be like the search. If a man seeks the world in the lusts 
of the eye and of the flesh, and a proud life, he will so 
find it. He will also take part with the world, and in 
the end will have part and reward for it with the world. 
But he who seeks the everlasting life, and follows truly 
the footsteps of Christ will also find and not seek in vain. 
His search will not be useless and notremiain unrewarded. 
John xii, 26 ; eh. xiv, 3 ; ch. xvii, 24. In order to avoid 
prolixity, as has been said, there ai-e many useful and 
valuable exercises and instructions in piety, which I can- 
not particularly describe, of belief, love, hope and 
patience. In fact all the exercises of virtue, which in the 
Holy Scriptures point the way to piety, and have been 
left behind and marked out as useful for instruction for 



136 HISTORICAL AiND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

US, should at certain times be placed before the youth, 
but to give specific information here of all would take too 
long. 

The true saving belief must contain all which serves 
for life and a godly walk, and nothing is deemed more 
worthy, by and in Jesus Christ, than the belief which, 
through love, shows itself active. He to whom the true 
belief in the Lord Jesus is given by the Lord Jesus him- 
self for a shield, is a weapon-bearer of Christ, not only to 
overcome the world, as is to be seen, 1' John v, verses 
5, 6, but also to put out all the fiery arrows of evil, as we 
may read, Eph. vi, 16. Therefore, for my encouragement 
and strengthening would I here do something in the way 
of belief, so much as [, according to the measure of my 
little gift, through the Lord's mercy may do. Without 
His mercy and pleasure all our doing is in vain, but while 
this is ray purpose I find myself impelled to do it simply 
and alone to the praise of God, and to the honor of His 
holy name. We have to thank no one but the dear God 
that He, in this dark world, has left hitherto His holy 
word stand, as a light upon a candlestick, which directs 
our feet to the way of peace. We can also say with 
David, Psalms cxix, 105, " Thy word is a lamp unto my 
feet and a light unto my path." But may God, AVho is a 
light, in Whom there is no darkness, send us His light and 
His truth, that they may lead and conduct us through this 
dark valley and shadow of death to His holy mount and 
to His dwelling, that we also, in truth, may say with 
David, Psalms xxxvi, In Thy light see we the light. 
Oh ! that we not only may look upon this light with the 
eyes of belief, hut also walk in this light, and through it 
may finally conquer and overcome the power of darkness. 
From my heart I wish and pray for help and strength of 
belief from the Most High. Amen. 



CHEISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 137 

A HUNDKED NECESSARY RULES OF CONDUCT 
FOR CHILDREN.^ 



I. Rules for the Behavior of a Child in the House 
OF ITS Parents. 

A. At and after getting up in the mornings. 

1. Dear child, accustom yourself to awaken at the 
right time in the morning without being called, and as 
soon as you are awake get out of bed without delay. 

2. On leaving the bed fix the cover in a nice, orderly 
way. 

3. Let your first thoughts be directed to God, according; 
to the example of David, who says, Psalms cxxxix, 18,. 
"When I am awake I am still with Thee," and Psalms 
Ixiii, 7, " When I am awake I speak of Thee." 

4. Ofi'er to those who first meet you, and your parents^ 
brothers and sisters, a good-morning, not from habit 
simply, but from true love. 

5. Learn to dress yourself quickly but neatly. 

6. Instead of idle talk with your brothers and sisters- 
or others, seek also, while dressing, to have good thoughts. 
Remember the clothing of righteousness which was earned- 
for you through Jesus, and form the resolution not to soil 
it on this day by intentional sin. 

7. When you wash your face and hands do not scatter 
the water about in the room. 

8. To wash out the mouth every morning with water,, 
and to rub off the teeth with the finger, tends to preserve- 
the teeth. 

^ These Rules of Conduct were published about ITC-J, in Saur'a 
Geistliches Magazien. 

9 



138 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

9. When you comb your hair do not go out into the 
middle of the room, but to one side in a corner. 

10. Offer up the morning prayer, not coldly from cus- 
tom, but from a heart-felt thankfulness to God, Who has 
protected you during the night, and call upon Him feel- 
ingly to bless your doings through the day. Forget not 
the singing and the reading in the Bible. 

11. Do not eat your morning bread upon the road or 
in school, but ask your parents to give it to you at home. 

12. Then get your books together and come to school 
at the right time. 

B. In the evenings at hed-time. 

13. After the evening meal do not sit down in a corner 
to sleep, but perform your evening devotions with singing, 
prayer and reading, before going to bed. 

14. Undress yourself in a private place, or if you must 
do it in the presence of others, be retiring and modest. 

15. Look over your clothes to see whether they are 
torn, so that they may be mended in time. 

16. Do not throw your clothes about in the room, but 
lay them together in a certain place, so that in the morn- 
ing early you can easily find them again. 

17. Lie down straight in the bed modestly, and cover 
yourself up well. 

18. Before going to sleep consider how you have spent 
the day, thank God for His blessings, pray to Him for 
the forgiveneps of your sins, and commend yourself to His 
merciful protection. 

19. Should you wake in the night, think of God and 
His omnipresence, and entertain no idle thoughts. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 139 

C. At meal-time. 

20. Before going to the table where there are strangers, 
comb and wash yourself very carefully. 

21. During the grace do not let your hands hang 
toward the earth, or keep moving them about, but let 
them, with your eyes, be directed to God. 

22. During the prayer do not lean or stare about, but 
be devout and reverent before the majesty of God. 

23. After the prayer, wait until the others who are 
older have taken their places, and then sit down at the 
table quietly and modestly. 

24. At the table sit very straight and still, do not 
wabble with your stool, and do not lay your arms on the 
table. Put your knife and fork upon the right and your 
bread on the left side. 

25. Avoid everything which has the appearance of eager 
and ravenous hunger, such as to look at the victuals 
anxiously, to be the first in the dish, to tear off the bread 
all at once in noisy bites, to eat quickly and eagerly, to 
take another piece of bread before the last is swallowed 
down, to take toQ large bites, to take the spoon too full, 
to stuff the mouth too full, &c. 

26. Stay at your place in the dish, be satisfied with 
what is given to you, and do not seek to have of every- 
thing. 

27. Do not look upon another's plate to see whether 
he has received something more than you, but eat what 
you have with thankfulness. 

28. Do not eat more meat and butter than bread, do 
not bite the bread ofi" with the teeth, cut regular pieces 
with the knife, but do not cut them off before the mouth, 

29. Take hold of your knife and spoon in an orderly 



140 HISTORICAL AND BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

way and be careful that you do not soil your clothes or 
the table cloth. 

30. Do not lick off your greasy fingers, wipe them on 
a cloth, but as much as possible use a fork instead of your 
fingers. 

31. Chew your food with closed lips and make no noise- 
by scraping on the plate. 

32. Do not wipe the plate off either with the finger or 
the tongue, and do not thrust your tongue about out of 
your mouth. Do not lean your elbows on the table when 
you carry the spoon to the mouth, 

33. Do not take salt out of the salt-box with your 
fingers, but with the point of your knife. 

34. The bones, or what remains over, do not throw 
under the table, do not put them on the table cloth, but 
let them lie on the edge of the plate. 

35. Picking the teeth with the knife or fork does not 
look well and is injurious to the gums. 

36. As much as possible abstain from blowing your 
nose at the table, but if necessity compels, turn your face 
away or hold your hand or napkin before it ; also when 
you sneeze or cough. 

37. Learn not to be delicate and over-nice or to imagine 
that you cannot eat this or that thing. Many must learn 
to eat among strangers what they could not at home. 

38. To look or smell at the dish holding the provisions 
too closely is not well. Should you find a hair or some- 
thing of the kind in the food, put it quietly and unnoticed 
to one side so that others be not moved to disgust. 

39. As often as you receive anything on your plate, 
give thanks with an inclination of tlie head, 

40. Do not gnaw the bones off with your teeth or make 
a noise in breaking out the marrow. 



CHKISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 141 

41. It is not well to put back on the dish what you 
have once had on your plate. 

42. If you want something across the table be careful 
not to let you sleeve hang in the dish or to throw a glass 
over. 

43. At table do not speak before you are asked, but if 
you have noticed anything good at church or school, or a 
suitable thought occurs to you relating to the subject of 
•discourse, you may properly bring it forward, but listen 
attentively to the good things said by others. 

44. When you drink you must have no food in your 
mouth, and must incline forward courteously, 

45. It has a very bad look to take such strong draughts 
while drinking that one has to blow or breathe heavily ; 
while drinking to let the eyes wander around upon others ; 
to commence drinking at table before parents or more 
important persons have drunk ; to raise the glass to the 
mouth at the same time with one of more importance ; 
to drink while others are speaking to us ; and to raise 
the glass many times after one another. 

46. Before and after drinking, the mouth ought to be 
wiped off, not with the hand but with a handkerchief or 
napkin. 

47. At the table be ready to help others if there is 
•something to be brought into the room or other thing to 
be done that you can do, 

48. When you have had enough, get up quietly, take 
your stool with you, wish a pleasant meal-time, and go 
to one side and wait what will be commanded you. Still 
should one in this respect follow what is customary. 

49. Do not stick the remaining bread in your pocket 
but let it lie on the table, 

50. After leaving the table, before you do anything else, 



142 HISTOEICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

give thanks to your Creator who has fed and satisfied 
you. 

11. Rules for the Behavior of a Child in School. 

51. Dear child, when you come into school, incline 
reverently, sit down quietly in your place, and think of 
the presence of God. 

52. During prayers think that you are speaking with 
God, and when the word of God is being read, think that 
God is speaking with you. Be also devout and rever- 
ential, 

53. When you pray aloud, speak slowly and deliber- 
ately ; and when you sing, do not try to drown the voices 
of others, or to have the first word. 

54. Be at all times obedient to your teacher, and do not 
let him remind you many times of the same thing. 

55. Should you be punished for bad behavior, do not, 
either by words or gestures, show yourself impatient or 
obstinate, but receive it for your improvement. 

56. Abstain in school from useless talking, by which 
you make the work of the schoolmaster harder, vex your 
fellow pupils, and prevent yourself and others from paying 
attention. 

57. Listen to all that is said to you, sit very straight 
and look at your teacher. 

58. When you recite your lesson, turn up your book 
without noise, read loudly, carefully and slowly, so that 
every word and syllable may be understood. 

59. Give more attention to yourself than to others, un- 
less you are placed as a monitor over them. 

60. If you are not questioned, be still ; and do not help 
others when they say their lessons, but let them speak 
and answer for themselves. 



CHETSTOPHEE DOCK AND HIS W'OEKS. 143 

61. To your fellow- scholars show yourself kind and 
peaceable, do not quarrel with them, do not kick them, 
do not soil their clothes with your shoes or with ink, give 
them no nick-names, and behave yourself in every respect 
toward them as you would that they should behave 
toward you. 

62. Abstain from all coarse, indecent habits or gestures 
in school, such as to stretch with the hands or the whole 
body from laziness ; to eat fruit or other things in school ; 
to lay your hand or arm upon your neighbor's shoulder, 
or under your head, or to lean your head forwards 
upon the table ; to put your feet on the bench, or let 
them dangle or scrape ; or to cross your legs over one 
another, or stretch them apart, or to spread them too wide 
in sitting or standing ; to scratch your head ; to play or 
pick with the fingers ; to twist and turn the head for- 
wards, backwards and sideways ; to sit i-md sleep ; to 
creep under the table or bench ; to turn your back to 
your teacher ; to change your clothes in school, and to 
show yourself restless in school. 

. 63. Keep your books, inside and outside, very clean and 
neat, do not write or paint in them, do not tear them, and 
lose none of them. 

64. When you write, do not soil your hands and face 
with ink, do not scatter it over the table or bench, or over 
your clothes or those of others. 

65. When school is out, make no great noise ; in going 
down stairs, do not jump over two or three steps at a time, 
by which you may be hurt, and go quietly home. 

III. How A Child should Behave on the Street. 

66. Dear child, although, after school, you are out of 
sight of your teacher, God is present in all places and you 



144 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHIOAL SKETCHES. 

therefoie have cause upon the street to be circumspect 
before Him and his Holy Angels. 

67. Do not run wildly upon the street, do not shout, 
but go quietly and decently. 

68. Show yourself modest, and do not openly, before 
other people, what ought to be done in a private place. 

69. To eat upon the street is unbecoming. 

70. Do not stare aloft with your eyes, do not run 
against people, do not tread purposely where the mud is 
thickest, or in the puddles. 

71. When you see a horse or wagon coming, step to 
one side, and take care that you do not get hurt, and 
never hang behind upon a wagon. 

72. In winter do not go upon the ice or throw snow- 
balls at others, or ride upon sleds with disorderly boys. 

73. In summer do not bathe in the water or go too 
aear it. Take no pleasure in mischievous or indecent 
games. 

74. Do not stand in the way where people quarrel or 
fight, or do other evil things ; associate not with evil com- 
panions who lead you astray ; do not run about at the 
annual fair; do not stand before mountebanks or look 
upon the wanton dance, since there you learn nothing but 
■evil. 

75. Do not take hold of other children so as to occupy 
the street, or lay your arm upon the shoulders of others. 

76. If any known or respectable person meets you, 
make way for him, bow courteously, do not wait until he 
is already near or opposite to you, but show to him this 
respect while you are still some steps from him. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 145 

IV. Rules for the Behavior of a Child in Meetinq 
OR Church. 

77. Dear child, in meeting or church think upon the 
holy presence of God, and that you will be judged accord- 
ing to the word you hear upon this day. 

78. Bring your Bible and hymn book with you, and 
sing and pray very devoutly, since out of the mouths of 
young children will God be praised. 

79. During the sermon be attentive to all that is said, 
mark what is represented by the text, and how the dis- 
course is divided; which also you can write on your slate. 
Refer to other beautiful passages in your Bible, but with- 
out noise or much turning of the leaves, and mark them 
by laying in long narrow bits of paper, of which you must 
always have some lying in your Bible. 

80. Do not talk in church, and if others want to talk 
with you do not answer. During the sermon, if you are 
overcome with sleep, stand up a little while and try to 
keep it off. 

81. When the name of Jesus is mentioned or used in 
prayer uncover or incline your head, and show yourself 
devout. 

82. Do not stare about the church at other people, and 
keep your eyes under good disciphue and control. 

83. All indecent habits which, under Rule No. 62, you 
ought to avoid in school, much more ought you to avoid 
in church. 

84. If you, with others, should go in couples into, or out 
of, the church you should never, from mischief, shove, tease 
or bespatter, but go forth decently and quietly. 



146 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

V. Rules for the Behavior of a Child under 

VARIOUS circumstances. 

85. Dear child, live in peace and unity with every one, 
and be entirely courteous from humility and true love of 
your neighbor. 

86. Accustom yourself to be orderly in everything, lay 
your books and other things in a certain place and do not 
let them lie scattered about in a disorderly way. 

87. When your parents send you on an errand, mark 
well the purpose for which you are sent, so that you make 
no mistake. When you have performed your task come 
quickly home again and give an answer, 

88. Be never idle, but either go to assist your parents, 
or repeat your lessons, and learn by heart what was given 
you. But take care that you do not read in indecent or 
trifling books, or pervert the time, for which you must 
give an account to God, with cards or dice. 

89. If you get any money, give it to some one to keep 
for you, so that you do not lose it, or spend it for dain- 
ties. From what you have, willingly give alms. 

90. If anythino; is presented to you, take it with the 
right hand and give thanks courteously. 

91. Should you happen to be where some one has left 
money or other things lying on the table, do not go too 
near or remain alone in the room. 

92. Never listen at the door, Sirach 21, 24. Do not 
run in quickly, but knock modestly, wait until you are 
called, incline as you walk in, and' do not slam the door. 

93. Do not distort your face, in the presence of people^ 
with frowns or sour looks ; be not sulky if you are asked 
any thing, let the question be finished without your inter- 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 147 

rupting, and do not answer with nodding or shaking the 
head, but with distinct and modest words. 

94. Make your reverence at all times deeply and lowly 
with raised face. Do not thrust your feet too far out 
behind. Do not turn your back to people, but your face. 

95. Whether a stranger or good friend comes to the 
house, be courteous to him, bid him welcome, offer him a 
chair and wait upon him. 

96. In sneezing, blowing the nose, spitting, and yawn- 
ing be careful to use all possible decency. Turn your 
face to one side, hold the hand before it, put the unclean- 
liness of the nose in a handkerchief and do not look at it 
long, let the spittal fall upon the earth and tread upon it 
with your foot. Do not accustom yourself to continual 
hawking, grubbing at the nose, violent panting, and 
other disagreeable and indecent ways. 

97. Never go about nasty and dirty. Cut your nails 
at the right time and keep your clothes, shoes and stock- 
ings, neat and clean. 

98. In laughing, be moderate and modest. Do not 
laugh at everything, and especially at the evil or mis- 
fortune of other people. 

99. If you have promised anything try to hold to it, 
and keep yourself from all lies and untruths. 

100. Let what you see of good and decent in other 
Christian people serve as an example for yourself. " If 
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on. 
these things." Phillipians iv, 8. 



148 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



HYMN "WITH TRANSLATION. 



Ach Kinder woUt ihr lieben, 
So liebt was Liebens werth, 

Wollt ihr ja Freude iiben, 
So liebt was Freude werth ; 

Liebt Gott, das hochste Gut, 

Mit Geist, Hertz, Seel und Muth, 
So wird euch solche Liebe 

Erquicken Herz und Muth. 

Liebt ihr die Eitelkeiten, 
Liebt ihr des Fleisches-lust, 

So saugt ihr kurze Freuden, 
A us falscher Liebes Brust, 

Worauf in Ewigkeit, 

Folgt Jammer Quaal und Leid, 
Wo nicht in Zeit der Gnaden, 

Die Seel durch Buss befreyt. 

Wir finden klar geschrieben 
Von einem reichen Mann, 

Der that solch Liebe uben, 
Wie Lucas zeiget an, 

Lebt er die kurze zeit 

In Fieisches-lust und Freud, 
Und liess sein Herze weyden 

In lauter Eitelkeit. 

Er hat in diesem Leben 
Mit Purpur sich gekleidt, 

Doch er muss Abschied geben, 
Sein Freud wahrt kurze Zeit. 



children, would you cherish 
A worthy lasting love ? 

The good that does not perish 
Is only found above. 

Seek God, the highest goal, 

With spirit and with soul. 
Then you will find a rapture 

The heart cannot control. 

Is indolence a pleasure ? 

Does worldliness allure? 
Then know that short the measure, 

For life is never sure, 
And through eternity 
The soul will ever be, 

The time for pardon wasted, 
In woful misery. 

Saint Luke has plainly written 

About a man of pride — 
With riches was he smitten 
And worldliness beside — 
He lived a little while, 
Luxurious in style. 

And fixed his heart on pleasures 
That only do beguile. 

In purple was he clothed, 

The whiles he lived on earth, 

Soon vanities were loathed 
And pride of little worth. 



' This hymn first appeared about 1773, in Vol. II, No. 15, of 
Saur's "Geistliches Magazien, and has been reproduced in the Un- 
partheyisches Gesang Buch, published in Lancaster in 1804, and 
other Hymn Books of the Mennonites. In translating, the eflfort 
has been made to preserve the thought, versification, metre and 
rhyme — a somewhat difficult task. 



CHEISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WOEKS. 



149 



So bald nach seinem Todt, 
Befand er sich in Noth ; 

Niemand wolt ihn erretten 
Aus solcher Pein und Leid. 

Drauf rief er um Erbarmen, 

Ach Vater Abraham ! 
Komm doch und hilf mir Armen 

Aus dieser grossen Flamm ; 
Ich bitte dich darum, 
Ach sende Lazarum, 

Mit einem Tropflein Wasser 
Zu kiihlen meine Zung. 

Kein Trost ward ihm gegeben 
Als der : Gedenke Sobn ! 

Dass du in deinem Leben, 

Dein Guts erwahlt zum Lobn : 

Drum liebe Kinderlein, 

Lassts euch ein Warnung seyn, 
Verlasst das eitle Leben, 

Dass ihr entgeht der Pein. 

Nun Kinder die Parabel 

Gibt Christus selbst zur Lebr, 

Drum haltets nicht vor Fabel, 
Noch vor ein neue Mahr ; 

Es wird also ergeh'n, 

Wann das Gericht gescbeb'n, 
Der eine wird sich freuen, 

Der andre traurig stehn. 

Die Pfort spricht Christus klar 
lich, 

1st weit, der Weg ist breit, 
Worauf so viel gefahrlich 

Wandeln in dieser Zeit, 
Nach der Verdammniss zu, 
in Quaal, Pein und Unruh, 

Worin sie sich selbst thorlich 
Stiirzen durch Fleisches Freud. 



Death put an end to gain — 
He found himself in pain — 

And from the direst sorrow 
He ne'er was free again. 

Then piteous was his wailing 

To father Abraham ; 
" come and help me failing 

In this tormenting flame — 
If I could only sip — 
If Lazarus would drip 

A little drop of water 
Upon my parching lip. 

No hope to him was given, 
No answer from the Lord 

To say that he while living 
Chose good for his reward. 

And so, beloved child, 

Take this for warning mild, 
Abandon idle living, 

To good be reconciled. 

It is a truthful story 

As Christ himself does teach,. 
Not simply allegory, 

Or other idle speech, 
And also can we say 
That on the judgment day 

The one will be rejoicing, 
The other mourning stay. 

Christ tells us very plainly 

The gate is open wide 
And many enter vainly 

In worldliness and pride ; 
The way is very broad, 
It is an easy road, 

Which leadeth to destruction 
And sorrow's dread abode. 



150 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Man liesset mit Erstaunen 
An andern Orten mehr, 

Dass Christus mit Posaunen, 
Mit Seinem Engels Heer, 

Wird kommen zuin Gericht 

Wie Gottes wort ausspricht, 
Da alles wird vergelien 

Mit Krachen. was man sieht. 



We read with greatest wonder 

In many places more, 
That Christ with trumpet's thunder 

While angels round him soar, 
Will come upon that day, 
The Holy Scriptures say, 

When everything material 
Will crash and pass away. 



Albsdann miissen erscheinen 
Vor seinem Angesicht, 

All Menschen gross und kleinen 
Und kommen vor Gericht, 

Und hor'n die Rechnung an, 

Wasjederhat gethan 
In seinem ganzen Leben, 

Ach Kinder denkt daran ! 



And then must all assemble 
To meet his searching glance, 

Both strong and weak will tremble 
To see that countenance, 

The reckoning to hear, 

What each in his career 
Has done of good or evil — 

Oh, Children, think and fear. 



Die Biicher der Gewissen 
Werden dort aufgethan, 

Worauf man hier beflissen, 
Wird es dort zeigen an, 

Das Buch des Lebens dann, 

Wird auch da aufgethan, 
Wer darin wird gefunden, 

Der ist recht gliicklich dran. 



Our secret inclinations 
Will then be open thrown, 

Our strongest aspirations 
Will in the light be shown, 

And he who then with heed 

The Book of Life can read, 

And find his name there written, 

Is fortunate indeed. 



Das Loos ist dem gefallen 
Zu Christi rechter Hand, 

Mit andern Frommen alien, 
Wird er als Schaaf erkannt; 

Bey ihm geht an die Freud 

In aller Ewigkeit : 

Kein Zangkan daaussprechen 

Die Freud und Herrlichkeit. 



He who is so appointed 

Aside at Christ's right-hand. 

Along with the anointed, 
Among the sheep will stand, 

To him great joy will be 

For all eternity, 

No tongue can give description 

Of his felicity. 



Ach da wird lieblieh Klingen, 
Der Engel Music-chor, 

Mit Jauchzen und mit Singen, 
Wird gehen durch die Thor, 



While bells are softly ringing, 

The angel music choir 
With chanting and with singing. 

Will enter through the door 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 



151 



In Zioii's Stadt hinein, 
Was Christi Schiiflein seyn, 

Wo ewig Freud und Wonne 
Auf ihrem Haupt wird seyn. 

Herr Tesu ! treuer Hirte 
Zahl uns zu deiner Herd, 

Acli zieh unsre Begierde 
Dir nach, von dieser Erd, 

Der Satan und die Welt, 

Haben ihr Netz gestellt, 
Uns von dir abzufiihren, 

Durch Wollust, Ehr und Geld. 



To Zion's golden town, 
On mortals looking down, 

And every lamb of Jesus 
Shall then receive his crown. 

Oh truest shepherd Jesus ! 

Count us among Thine own, 
Come quickly and release us, 

Amid enticements thrown. 
For here does Satan old 
His wicked nets unfold 

And ever seek to win us 
With honors and with gold. 



So lang wir hier noch leben 
So sind wir in Gefahr, 

Ach Herr du wolst uns geben 
Zu Hulf der Engel Schaar. 

Dass er uns Beystand leist 

Ach send uns deinen Geist! 
Damit wir dir rechtfolgen. 

Was uns dein Wort anweisst. 



As long ss we are living 
Is danger ever here, 

Unless assistance giving 
Thy helping hand be near. 

Thy holy spirit send, 

That he support may lend 
So that we faithful follow 

Thy word unto the end. 



Wann unser Herz will wanken 
Vom schmalen Lebens-pfad, 

So gib uns in Gedanken, 
Dass solche Missethat 

Tins in den Feuer-pfuhl, 

Vor deinem Richtter-stuhl, 
Vor ewig konte stiirzen, 

Drum halt uns auf dem Pfad. 



Whene'er our hearts are sinking 
Within the narrow way, 

Assist us then in thinking 
That any wish to stray 

May, from thy judgment stool 

Into the fiery pool. 

Us hurl below forever, 

Where waters never cool. 



Wann uns die Welt mit Prangen, 
Mit HofFart, Fleisches-lust, 

In ihre Netz will fangen, 
So druck in unsre Brust, 

Was dort in Ewigkeit, 

Vor Jammer, Quaal und Leid, 
Auf solche kurze Freuden, 

Wird ewig seyn bereit. 



Whenever earthly rapture, 

Or arrogance or lust. 
Shall with allurements capture, 

Oh ! help us to distrust — 
Enable us to see 
What endless misery 

For transitory pleasures 
Will ever ready be. 



152 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Pflanz du in unsre Herzen 
Die wahre Demuth ein, 

Ziind an die Glaubens Kerzen 
Dass aller falsche Schein 

Bey uns werde vermeid, 

Und der Welt Lust und Freud, 
Mit Demuth iiberwunden, 

Durcli Glaubens Sieg im Streit. 



Oh let us be o'erflowing 

With true humility ; 
The lamp of faith be glowing 

That all of us may see 
False glimmerings to shun : 
The world be overdone ; 

The victory o'er fleshly things 
By lowliness be won. 



Gib dass uns deine Liebe 
0, Seelen-Brautigam ! 

Ach Liebes Ursprung giebe, 
Dass deine Liebes Flamm 

Das Herz in uns entziind, 

Wodurch wir alle Siind, 
Ja alles mochten hassen, 

Was nicht mit dir verbind. 



Oh ! send us from above, 

Thou bridegroom of the soul ! 

Thou source of purest love ! 
A living burning coal 

To kindle in the heart 

The fear of Satan's art 

That all things may be hateful 

Which would from thee us part. 



Ach Vater all die Tugend ; 

Die dir gefiillig sind, 
Gib uns und auch der Jugend, 

Die noch unmiindig sind, 
Damit allhie auf Erd 
Denn Reich stets werd vermehrt 

Und dass nach deinem Willen 
Dein Nam geheiligt werd. 



The virtuous, oh Father ! 

Acceptable to thee, 
And all the children gather 

Who still unready be 
That, spread on every side, 
Thy kingdom may be wide. 

And that Thy will be followed^ 
Thy name be glorified. 



Und well auf dieser Erden 
Der schmale Himmels Weg 

Voll Triibsal und Beschwerden, 
Ein Creutz und Leidens Steg ; 

So gib Herr Gedult, 

Und schenk uns deine Huld, 
Erloss uns von dem Bossen, 

Vergib uns unsr^ Schuld. 



And since the way to Jordan, 
The long and narrow road, 

Is full of toil and burden, 
The Cross a weary load. 

Oh give us patience, Lord, 

Thy precious help aiford, 

Withhold not from our failings 

Thy sweet forgiving word. 



Wo wir auf diesem Wege If we the way pursuing 

Auf Seit getreten seyn. Should ever turn aside 

Und durch des Fleisches Wege Unto our own undoing, 

Gewilligt in die Siind. Induced by worldly pride,. 



CHRISTOPHER DOCK AND HIS WORKS. 



153 



Wie wir miissen gestehn, 
Dass es gar offt gescheh'n, 

Wodurch wir dich betriibet, 
Und deine Straf verdient. 



As oft indeed has been, 
And for the grievous sin 

Might punishment severest 
Deservedly begin. 



Ach Gott und Vater schone ! 

Vergib die Missethat, 
Durch Christum deinem Sohne, 
Und gib uns die Genad, 
Dass uns kein Creutz und Noth, 
Jh war es auch der Tod, 

Von deiner Liebe scheide 
Auf diesem Leidens Pfad. 



Oh, God, and glorious Father, 
Our failures do not heed, 

But for thy Son's sake rather 
Be merciful indeed, 

So that when sorrows toss 

No earthly trial or loss, 
Not even death, itself, can 

Divide us from the cross. 



Amen, Lob, Preiss, dort oben, 
Sey Gott im hochsten Thron, 

Den sollen wir all loben, 
Uud Ghristo seinem Sohn, 

Sammt dem Heiligen Geist, 

Der unser Troster heisst, 

Der bring uns all zusammen, 

Er sey allein gepreisst. 



Then praise to God above 
Upon his highest throne, 

To him we offer love. 

To Christ his blessed Son, 

And to the Holy Ghost 

In whom we place our trust, 
They bring at last together 

The pious and the just. 



10 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ ODER 

Marty RE R Spiegel, 

EPHRATA, PA., 1748. 

A NOTEWORTHY BOOK. 



From Pennsylvania Magazine of History and 
Biography, Vol. V. p. 276, 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ ODER 
MARTYRER SPIEGEL. 



" Amona; all the things which men have or strive for 
through their whole lives," said Alphonse the Wise, King 
of Arragon, " there is nothing better than old wood to 
bura, old wine to drink, old friends for company, and old 
books to read. All the rest are only bagatelles," The 
wise King was something of a bookworm, and mentioned 
last by way of climax the treasures that lay nearest to his 
heart. Doubtless, he was thinking all the while how the 
wood turns to ashes, the fumes of the wine disappear with 
the hour, that sooner or later "marriage and death, and 
division" carry off our friends, and that the pleasure de- 
rived from old books alone is pure and permanent. What 
can exceed the delight of a connoisseur familiar with 
authors, imprints, paper and bindings, and educated to an 
appreciation of the difference between leaves cut and 
uncut, upon discovering a perfect copy of an extremely 
rare bock ? For him the calm satisfaction of the litera- 
teur and the gratified avarice of the miser are blended 
into a glowing passion. In the present age of the world 
we measure the value of pretty much everything by the 
amount of money it will bring. In Europe a copy of the 
first edition of the Decameron has been sold for £2260 
sterlino-, and one of the Gutenberg Bible on vellum, for 
£3400. In this country we have not yet reached to that 
height of enthusiasm or depth of purse, but in the late 
sale of the library of Mr. George Brinley, a copy of the 
first book printed in New York, by William Bradford, 



158 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

brought $1600 ; and unquestionably as years roll on, and 
the number of persons who have the means and the leisure 
to devote themselves to literary pursuits increases, while 
the early imprints through absorption by public libraries 
and in other ways become more inaccessible, the market 
value of these volumes will immeasurably enhance. Up to 
the present time the noblest specimen of American colonial 
bibliography has remained utterly unknown to the most 
learned of our bibliophiles. There is no reference to it in 
the appendix to Thomas on Printing, published by the 
American Antiquarian Society, whose purpose was to 
give all the pre-revolutionary publications of America. 
So far as can be learned no copy of it has ever appeared 
at a book-sale or been in the hands of an American book- 
seller.^ Though printed within a comparatively short 
distance of Philadelphia, until within the last year the 
librarian of the Philadelphia Library had never heard of 
its existence; and Sabin, whose knowledge of Americana 
is unsurpassed, was equally in the dark. It is to call the 
attention of those who love our literature to this very 
remarkable work, and to give its points and history so 
that it may no longer lurk in obscurity, that this article 
is written. 

Men, communities, and nations have their origin, de- 
velopment, and fruition. So have books. In Holland, in 
the year 1562 there appeared a duodecimo of about two 
hundred and fifty leaves in the Dutch language called 
Het offer des Heeren. This was the germ.'^ It contained 

' Since this was written a copy was secured by a pubhshing house 
in Philadelphia, and was sold for $120. 

' Still earlier were fugitive broadsides and pamphlets, printed 
secretly by the friends of the martyrs. Naturally nearly all of these 
have disappeared, but it is well known that they existed and were 
widely circulated. A few of them are preserved in the library of 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 159 

biographical sketches of a number of the early martyrs of 
the Doopsgezinde or Mennonites, a sect which was the 
antetype of the Quakers, and these sketches were accom- 
panied by hymns describing in rhyme not only their piety 
and sufferings but even the manner and dates of their 
deaths. To publish such a book was then punishable by 
fire, and the title-page therefore gives no indication as to 
where it was printed or who was the printer. Meeting 
together in secret places and in the middle of the night, 
the linen weavers of Antwerp and the hardy peasants of 
Friesland cherished their religious zeal and their vener- 
ation for Menno Simons, b}^ singing and reading about 
their martyrs. Next to the Bible this book was most in 
demand among them, and later editions were printed in 
the years 1567, 1570, 1576, 1578, 1580, 1589, 1595, 
and 1599, but many copies were, along with their owners^ 
burned by the executioners, and the book is now very 
scarce. It was followed by a large quarto of eight hun- 
dred and sixty-three pages with an engraved title-page, 
written by Hans de Ries and Jacques Outerman, and 
printed at Hoorn, in 1617, by Zacharias Cornelisz, called 
" Historie der warachtighe Getuygen Jesu Christi ;" and 
this again by a handsome black-letter folio of ten hundred 
and fifty-six pages, printed at Haerlem by Hans Pass- 
chiers von Wesbusch in 1631, entitled " Martelaers Spiegel 
der werelose Christenen." The subject was capable of 
still more thorough treatment, and in 1660 Tieleman Jans 
Van Braght, a Mennonite theologian at Dordrecht, who 
was born in 1625 and died in 1664, published " Het 

the Mennonite College at Amsterdam. I have one giving details 
of the burning of Frantz and Niclaus Thiessen, in Brabant in 1556, 
which came from the library of Count Zinzendorf. It is at least 
possible that the Tysons who settled in Germant('Wn were of the 
same family. 



160 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Bloedigli Toneel der Doops Gesinde en Wereloose Chris- 
tenen," a folio of thirteen hundred and twenty-nine pages. 
It was reproduced in 1685 in two magnificent folio vol- 
umes, handsomely illustrated with a frontispiece, and a 
hundred and four copper-plates engraved by the celebrated 
Jan Luyken. 

This book in its immense proportions is thus seen to 
have been a gradual culmination of the research and liter- 
ary labors of many authors. In his first edition Van 
Braght gives a list of 356 books he had consulted. It i» 
the f^reat historical work of the Mennonites, and the most 
durable monument of that sect. It traces the history of 
those Christians who from the time of the Apostles were 
opposed to the baptism of infants and to warfare, including 
the Lyonists, Petrobusians, and Waldenses ; details the 
persecutions of the Mennonites by the Spaniards in the 
Netherlands and the Calvinists in Switzerland, together 
with the individual suff*erings of many hundreds who were 
burned, drowned, beheaded, or otherwise maltreated ; and 
contains the confessions of faith adopted by the different 
communities. The relations between the Quakers, who 
arose much later, and the Mennonites were close and in- 
timate ; their views upon most points of belief and church 
government were identical, and where they met they 
welded together naturally and without a flaw. Penn, 
along with others of the early Quakers, went to Holland 
and Germany, to preach to, and make converts among 
the Mennonites, and he invited them pressingly to settle 
n his province. In 1683, and within the next few years, 
jiiany families from the Lower Rhine and the Netherlands 
went to Germantown in Pennsylvania, branchino; from 
there out to Skippack ; and in 1709, began the extensive 
emigration from Switzerland and the Palatinate to Lan- 
caster County, where are still to be found the largest 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 161 

communities of the sect in America, and where the people 
still turn to the pages of Van Braght to read the lives of 
their forefathers. 

Many copies of the book were brought to America, but 
they were in Dutch. No German translation existed, 
and much the larger proportion of those here who were 
interested in it could read only that language. It was- 
not long before a desire for a German edition was mani- 
fested, and the declaration of a war between England and 
France in 1744, wliich in the nature of things must in- 
volve sooner or later their colonies in America, made the 
Mennonites fearful that their principles of non-resistance 
would be again put to the test, and anxious that all of the 
members, especially the young, should be braced for the 
struggle by reading of the steadfastness of their forefathers 
amid sufferings abroad. Their unsalaried preachers were, 
however, like the members of the flock, farmers who 
earned their bread by tilling the soil, and were ill fitted 
both by circumstances and education for so great a literary 
labor. Where could a trustworthy translator be found? 
Where was the printer, in the forests of Pennsylvania, 
who could undertake the expense of a publication of such 
magnitude? Naturally, they had recourse to the older 
and wealthier churches in Europe, and on the 19th of 
October, 1745, Jacob Godschalck, of Germantown, Diel- 
man Kolb, of Salford, Michael Ziegler, Yilles Kassel, and 
Martin Kolb, of Skippack, and Heinrich Funck, of Indian- 
Greek, the author of two religious works published in 
Pennsylvania, wrote, under instruction from the various 
communities, a letter to Amsterdam on the subject. 
They say : " Since according to appearances the flames of 
war are mounting higher, and it cannot be known whether 
the cross and persecution may not come upon the de- 



162 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

fenceless Christians,^ it becomes us to strengthen ourselves 
for such circumstances with patience and endunince, and 
to make every preparation for steadfast constancy in our 
faith. It was, therefore, unanimously considered good in 
this community, if it could be done, to have the Bloediij 
Toneel of Dielman Jans Van Braght translated into the 
German language, especially since in our communities in 
this country there has been a great increase of young men 
who have grown up. In this book posterity can see the 
traces of those faithful witnesses who have walked in the 
way of truth and given up their lives for it. Notwith- 
standing we have greatly desired to have this work com- 
menced for many years, it has hitherto remained unac- 
complished. The establishment of a new German printing 
office has renewed the hope, but the bad paper used here 
for printing has caused us to think further about it. 
Besides, up to this time, there has not appeared, either 
among ourselves or others, any one who understood the 
language well enough to translate it accurately. We have 
not felt that we could with safety entrust it to those who 
have been mentioned and promised to do it, and while it 
concerns us that this translation should be made, it con- 
cerns us just as much that the truth should remain un- 
injured by such translation. We have at last concluded 
to commit our design to the brethren in Holland, and our 
Diener and Vorsteher will unanimously be governed by 
their advice. We earnestly ask you then to receive our 
request in love, and to send over to us as soon as it can be 
done an estimate and specification. We want to know 
what it will cost to translate it and to print and bind a 
thousand copies, whether they could be sent here without 
great charges and expense, what they would come to with 

' Wehrlosen Christenen, a name they often gave themselves. 



DEE KLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 163 

or without copper-plates, whetlier you think it best that 
they should be sent over in parcels or all at once if it is 
feasible, and what in your opinion is the best way in which 
it can be done. We appeal to your love, since all here 
have a heartfelt desire that the book may be translated 
into the German, and we ask in the matter your love and 
counsel about undertaking it, whether in these dangerous 
times of war it can be accomplished, and what it will cost 
to translate it and print and bind a thousand copies. We 
hope you will receive our request in love, and as soon as 
possible let us know your counsel and opinion."^ 

The Dutcli are proverbially slow, and in this instance 
they maintained their reputation, since they did not reply 
until February 10th, 1748, nearly three years later. They 
then threw cold water on the whole enterprise. They 
thought it utterly impracticable both because of the 
trouble of finding a translator and because of the immense 
expense that would be incurred. They further suggested 
a way out of the difficulty which would have been worthy 
of Diedrich Knickerbocker. It was to get some of the 
brethren who understood the Dutch language to trans- 
late the chief histories in which the confessions of the 
martyrs are given and have them copied by the young 
people in manuscript.^ B}'- so doing would be secured the 
"double advantage that through the copying they would 
give more thought to it and receive a stronger impres- 
sion." 

Without waiting for this valuable advice the Ameri- 
cans had in the mean time found a way to accomplish 

' Dr. J. G. De Hoop Scheffer very kindly sent me this lettei-, 
which has never before been printed, from the Archives at Am- 
sterdam. 

' The greater part of the literature of the Schwenckfelders was 
reproduced and disseminated in this way in Pennsylvania. 



164 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

their purpose. At Eplirata, in Lancaster County, had 
been established some years before, and still exists, a 
community of mystical Dunkers, who practised celibacy, 
and held their lands and goods in common. About 1745, 
they secured a band printing press, now in possession of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, on which they 
printed over fifty books, which are among the scarcest 
and most sought after of American imprints. In the 
Brinley library, perhaps the most complete collection of 
Americana which has ever been sold, there was but a single 
book from the Ephrata press. Some of the Ephrata 
hymns have been rendered into English Averse by Wliit- 
tier. The chronicle of the Cloister says : " Shortly before 
the time that the mill was burned down the Mennonites 
in Pennsylvania united together to have their great mar- 
tyr book, which was in the Dutch language, translated 
and printed in German. For this work there was nobody 
in the whole country considered better fitted than the 
brotherhood in Ephrata, since they had a new printing 
office and paper mill, and moreover could place hands 
enough upon the work. The agreement was very advan- 
tageous for the said Mennonites, since it was determined 
upon both sides that the brethren should translate and 
print the book, but the Mennonites should afterward be 
at liberty to purchase or not But scarcely was this 
agreement known before it began to be everywhere feared 
lest the good brethren might heap up a Mammon for 
themselves. Yes, even letters of warning were written 
by friends in Germany because of it. But the good God 
had other views therein of which the brethren themselves 
were unconscious until they had so far progressed with it 
that they could no longer withdraw. The Vorsteher who 
was the abettor of this work never let it come to a stand- 
still or rest, and took every opportunity to keep all those 



DEE BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 165 

under bis direction in constant action, so that no one 
might again be satisfied in this life and be forgetful of 
the trust from above, for which purpose this martyr book 
served admirably, as will be further mentioned in this 
place," 

"After the building of the mill was completed, the 
printing of the martyr book was taken in hand, for which 
important work fifteen brethren were selected, of whom 
nine had their task in the printing office, viz., a corrector 
who was also translator, four compositors, and four press- 
men. The others worked in the paper mill Three 
years were spent upon this book, but the work was not 
continuous because often the supply of paper was deficient. 
And, since in the mean time there was very little other 
business on hand, the brethren got deeply into debt, but 
through the great demand for the book this was soon 
liquidated. It was printed in large folio, using sixteen 
quires of paper, and making an edition of thirteen hundred 
copies. In a council held with the Mennonites, the price 
for a single copy was fixed at twenty shillings, from which 
it can be seen that the reasons for printing it were very 
different from a hope for profit. That this martyr book 
was a cause of many trials to the recluses, and added not 
a little to their spiritual martyrdom, is still in fresh 
remembrance. The Vorsteher who had put the work in 
motion had other reasons for it than gain. The spiritual 
welfare of those who were entrusted to him lay deep in 
his heart, and lie neglected no opportunity to provide for 
it. The three years that this book was on the press 
were an admirable preparation for spiritual martyrdom, 
although their worldly affairs were in the mean time 
unfortunate and permitted to fall into neglect. If this is 
considered, and the small price and how far those who 
worked on it were removed from all self-interest, it can- 



166 HISTORICAL AND BIOQRAPIIIOAL SKETCHES. 

not fail to appear how valuable must have been to them 
the descriptions therein contained of the lives of the holy 
martyrs." 

In this rather remarkable way have been fortunately 
preserved the particulars concerning the publication of 
the Ephrata martyr book. The Vorsteher referred to in 
the chronicle was Conrad Beissel, the founder of the 
Cloister, who among the brethren was known as Vater 
Friedsam. The greater part of the literary work upon it 
was done by the leained prior, Peter Miller, who later, 
at the request of Congress, according to Watson the an- 
nalist, translated the Declaration of Independence into 
seven different European languages The publication of 
the first part was completed in 1748, and the second in 
1749. The title-page in full is as follows: " Der blutige 
Schau-Platz oder Martyrer Spiegel der Taufifs-Gesinten 
oder wehrlosen Christen, die um des Zeugnuss Jesu ihres 
Seligmachers willen gelitten haben, und seynd getoedtet 
worden, von Christi Zeit an bis auf das Jahr 1660. Vor- 
mals aus unterschiedlichen glaubwuerdigen Chronicken, 
Nachrichten und Zeugnuessen gesaralet und in Hollaen- 
discher Sprach herausgegeben von T. J. V. Braght. Nun 
aber sorgfseltigst ins Hochteutsche uebersetzt und zum 
erstenmal ans Licht gebracht. Ephrata in Pensylvanien, 
Drucks und Verlags der Bruederschafl't Anno MDCCXL- 
VIII." It is a massive folio of fifteen hundred and 
twelve pages, printed upan strong thick paper, in large 
type, in order, as is said in the preface, " that it may suit 
the eyes of all." The binding is e^olid and ponderous, 
consisting of boards covered with leather, with mountings 
of brass on the corners, and two brass clasps. The back 
is further protected b)'- strips of leather studded with 
brass nails. Some of the copies when they were issued 
were illustrated with a frontispiece engraved upon copper, 



DER BLUTIGE 6CHAU-PLATZ. 16T 

but they were coraparatively few, aud the book is com- 
plete without this plate. The creed of the Dunkers 
differs from that of the Mennonites mainly in the fact 
that the former believe in the necessity of immersion, 
while the latter administer Baptism by sprinkliog, and 
over this question the two sects have contended with each 
other quite earnestly. The plate referred to represented 
John the Baptist immersing Christ in the river Jordan, 
and consequently the Mennonites refused to have it 
bound in the copies which they purchased, and, on the 
other hand, in those secured by the Dunkers it was in- 
serted. There was another plate prepared for the book,, 
but for some unknown reason it was not used, and there 
is but a single known print from it.^ These plates appear 
to have been engraved by M. Eben, at Frankfort in Ger- 
many. In some instances it was bound in two volumes. 
The title-page to the second part says that it was " out of 
the Dutch into the German translated and with some new 
information increased." Among the additions made at 
Ephrata were twelve stanzas upon page 939, concerning 
the martyrdom of Hans Haslibacher ; taken from tha 
Aushundt or hymn-book of the Swiss Mennonites. Some 
of the families in Pennsylvania and other parts of the 
United States, the sufferings of whose ancestors are men- 
tioned in it, are those bearing the names of Kuster, Hen- 
dricks, Yocum, Bean, Rhoads, Gotwals, Jacobs, Johnson^ 
Royer, Zimmerman, Shoemaker, Keyser, Landis, Meylin, 
Brubaker, Kulp, Weaver, Snyder, Wanger, Grubb, Bow- 
man, Bachman, Zug, Aker, Garber, Miller, Kassel, and 
Wagner. In Lancaster County there are to-day many 
of the Wentz family. The story of the burning of Maey- 
ken Wens, at Antwerp, in 1573, is more than ordinarily 

' In the Cassel collection. 



168 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

pathetic. " Thereupon on the next day," says the ac- 
count, " which was the sixth of October, this pious and 
■God-fearing heroine of Jesus Christ, as also her other 
fellow believers, who in like manner had been condemned, 
were with their tongues screwed fast, like innocent sheep 
brouglit forward, and after each was tied to a stake in the 
market place, were robbed oi life and body by a dreadful 
and horrible fire, and in a short time were burned to 
ashes . . . The oldest son of this aforementioned 
martyr, called Adrian Wens, about fifteen years old, upon 
the day on which his dear mother was sacrificed, could 
not stay away from the place of execution, so he took his 
youngest brother, called Hans Matthias Wens, about three 
years old, on his arm, and stood on a bench not far from 
the burning-stake to witness his mother's death. But 
when she was brought to the stake he fainted, fell down, 
and lay unconscious until his mother and the others were 
burned. Afterward when the people had gone away and 
he came to himself, he went to the place where his mother 
was burnt, and hunted in the ashes until he found the 
screw with which her tongue had been screwed fast, and 
he kept it for a memento. There are now, 1659, still 
many descendants of this pious martyr living well known 
to us, who, after her name are called Maeyken Wens." 

The before-mentioned Heinrich Funk and Dielman 
Kolb were appointed a committee by the Mennonites to 
make the arrangements with the community at Ephrata, 
and to supervise the translation. Their certificate is ap- 
pended, saying : " It was desired by very many in Penn- 
sylvania that there should be a German translation and 
edition of the martyr book of the Defenceless Christians 
or Taufis-gesinneten, before printed in the Dutch language, 
and the Brotherhood in Ephrata, at Conestoga, offered 
and promised not only that they would translate the book, 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 169 

but would take care that it should be of a neat print and 
a good paper and at their own cost, if we would promise 
to buy the copies and have none printed or brought here 
from any other place. Thereupon the elders and ministers 
of those communities of the Tauffs-gesinneten, which are 
called Mennonites, (to which communities the said book is 
best adapted), went to Ephrata and made there with their 
said friends an agreement that they, the said Tauffs-gesin- 
neten, would buy the said books at a reasonable price, and 
would not give orders elsewhere, provided they should re- 
ceive assurance of good work, paper and translation, but if 
the print should not turn out well they should be released. 
Heinrich Funk and Dielman Kolb had such a great love 
for this book that they both with common consent iiave 
their time and labor to it, and, as the leaves came from 
the press and were sent to them in their order, went over 
them one at a time, comparing them with the Dutch, and 
in this work have not omitted a single verse. They have 
not found in the whole book one line which does not give 
the same grounds of belief and sense as is contained in 
the Dutch. They have indeed found a number of words 
about which they have hesitated and doubted, and which 
might have been improved both in the Dutch and German, 
but it is not to be wondered at that in so large a book a 
word here and there is not used in the best sense ; but 
nobody ought to complain for this reason, for we are all 
human and often err. Concerning the Errata placed be- 
fore the Register, it has been found that many that were 
in the Dutch edition have been corrected, though not all, 
and some have been found in the German, although, as 
has been said, they are not numerous. We have, there- 
fore, at the request of the rest of our fellow ministers, very 
willingly read through this great book from the beginning 

to the end, and compared it with the Dutch, and we have 

11 



170 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

according to our slight ability and gift of understanding 
found nothing that would be disadvantageous to this book, 
or in which the teachings of the holy martyrs have not 
been properly translated, but we believe that the trans- 
lator has done his best, with the exception of the typo- 
graphical errors, of which in our opinion there are few for 
such a great book. But should some one go through it 
as we have done, and find some mistakes which we have 
overlooked or not understood, it would be well for him to 
call attention to them, because two or three witnesses are 
better than one. We further believe that the best thing 
about this book will be that the Lord through his Holy 
Spirit will so kindle the hearts of men with an eager 
desire for it, that they will not regard a little money but 
buy it, and take plenty of time, read in it earnestly with 
thought, so that they may see and learn in what way they 
should be grounded in belief in Christ, and how they 
should arrange their lives and walk, in order to follow the 
defenceless Lamb and to be heirs of the everlasting King- 
dom with Christ and his Apostles. In this book are con- 
tained many beautiful teachings out of both the Old and 
New Testament, accompanied with many examples of 
true followers, from which it is apparent that we must 
through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God. 
Acts xiv, 22. We see in it many true predecessors who have 
followed the Lamb, of whom Paul says, Hebrews xiii, 7 : 
Rememher them which have the rule over you, who have 
spoken unto you the word of God : whose faith follow, 
considering the end of their conversation. Although the 
road is small and narrow, nevertheless it leads to ever- 
lasting joy." 

When Israel Acrelius, the author of the History of New 
Sweden, visited Ephrata in 1754, he was shown the 
martyr book, which, he says, of all the works published 



DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. 171 

there, had given the most trouble and least return. " We 
went down again to Miiller's room, and there he showed 
me the History of the Persecution of the Anabaptists, a 
large and thick folio volume, which he himself had trans- 
lated from the Holland into the German language, and 
had afterwards had it printed there in Ephrata, saying it 
was the largest book that had been printed in Penn- 
sylvania, as also that he had labored for three years upon 
the translation, and was at the same time so burthened 
with work that he did not sleep more than four hours 
during the night. He believed that the Anabaptists had 
not suffered any persecutions in Sweden. I however gave 
him to understand that King Gustavus Adolphus had in his 
time had great difficulty in curing their infectious reforma- 
tory sickness, which would otherwise have gone very far, 
although he did this without persecution. The edition of 
Miiller's book was one thousand two hundred copies, of 
which seven hundred have been circulated and five hun- 
dred are still on hand. He said that they could be sold 
within ten years. I think he meant twenty. The price 
is twenty-two shillings. I asked him how they could be 
sold at so low a price. Why not ? said he : for we do 
not propose to get rich.'' There is still another event in 
the history of this publication recorded in the chronicles 
of the cloister. "This book had finally in the revolution- 
ary war a singular fate. There being great need of all 
war material and also paper, and it having been discovered 
that in Ephrata was a large quantity of printed paper, an 
arrest was soon laid upon it. Many objections were raised, 
and among others it was alleged that since the English 
army was so near, this circumstance might have a bad 
efiect. They were determined, however, to give up noth- 
ing, and that all must be taken by force. So two wagons 
and six soldiers came and carried off" the martyr books. 



172 HISTORICAL A>D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

This caused sreat offence through the land, and many 
thought that the war would not end well for the country, 
gince they had maltreated the testimonies of the holy 
martrrs. However they finally again came to honor, 
since some judicious persons bought what there was left 
of them/' 

It is manifest that the publication of this book was re- 
garded as an event of great magnitude and importance, or 
the record of it, gathered as it is from such widely sepa- 
rated sources, would not have been so complete, and it is 
also plain that only religious zeal could have made the 
production of such a literary leviathan possible at that- 
time. It was reprinted at Pirmasens in the Palatinate in 
17S0. A note in thii? edition says : " After this martyr 
book wa5 received in Europe, it was found good by the 
united brotherhood of the Mennonites to issue this Ger- 
man martyr book after the copy from Ephrata again in 
German print, that it might be brought before the united 
brotherhood in Europe." They secured the old copper- 
plates of the Dutch edition of 1685, which had since been 
used on a work entitled Theatre des Martyrs, published 
about 1700, without text, date, or imprint, and with them 
illustrated the publication. It thus appeare that the un- 
complimentary implication contained in the old query of 
"who rea'is an'American book?" applies only to our English 
literature. The republication at that early date of a work 
so immense certainly marks an epoch in the literary history 
of America. 

The war of 1812 called forth another American edi- 
tion, which was published by Joseph Ehrenfried at 
LaDcaster, Pa,, in 1814, by subscription at ten dollars per 
copy. It is a folio of 976 pages, fifteen inches tall, and 
magnificently bound. There is a preface, authorized by 
manv of the Diener and Vorsteher of the Mennonites in 



DEE BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ. * 173 

the name of the whole community, which gives some in- 
formation concerning this and other publications.^ The 
Pirmas*-ns edition seems to have been unknown to them. 
Shem Zook, an Amish Mennonite, had a quarto edition 
published in Philadelphia in 1849, and John F. Funk, of 
Elkhart, Indiana, issued another in 1870. An imperfect 
English translation by I. D. Rupp appeared in 1837, and 
in 1853 a translation by the Hanserd Knollys Society of 
London was in course of preparation, and was afterward 
published. 

Copies of the Ephrata edition are, as has been said, ex- 
ceedingly scarce. A copy has been known to bring thirty- 
two dollars among farmers at a countrv sale, and one 
which had found its way into the hands of Frederik Mul- 
ler & Co., in Amsterdam, was held at 180 florins. There 
is one in the library of the German Societ)' in Philadel- 
phia, one in that of the Mennonite College at Amsterdam, 
and another in that of the Historical Societv of Pennsyl- 
vania, but to the great libraries elsewhere it is as yet un- 
known. Having regard to the motives which led to its 
publication, the magnitude of the undertaking, the labor 
and time expended in printing it leaf by leaf upon a hand- 
press, its colossal size, excellent typography, the quality of 
its paper made at Ephrata it^ historical and genealogical 
value, and its great rarety, it easily stands at the head of 
our colonial books. Among the literarv achievements of 
the Germans of Pennsylvania it surpasses, though eight 
years later, the great quarto Bible of Saur, the first in 
Americ-a. printed at Germantown in 1743. which for 
nearly half a century had no English rival. 

^ I have the editions of 1660, 16S5, 1748, 1780, and 1S14. They 
■cannot be found together anv where else. 



Mennonite Emigration to 



Pennsyivania. 



From Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. II., p. 117, 



MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

By Dr. J. G. De Hoop Scheffer, of Amsterdam.^ 



The extensive tract of land, bounded on tlie east by the 
Delaware, on the north by the present New York, on the 
west by the Allegheny mountains, and on the south by 
Maryland, has such an agreeable clinaate, such an un- 
usually fertile soil, and its watercourses are so well 
adapted for trade, that it is not surprising that there, as 
early as 1638 — five and twenty years after our forefathers 
built the first house in New Amsterdam (New York) — a 
European colony was established. The first settlers were 
Swedes, but some Hollanders soon joined them. Sur- 
rounded on all sides by savage natives, continually 
threatened and often harassed, they contented themselves 
with the cultivation of but a small portion of the land. 
After, however, King Charles H. had, in settlement of 
a debt, given the whole province to William Penn, there 
came a great change. There, before long, at his invita- 
tion and through his assistance, his oppressed fellow- 
believers, followers like himself of George Fox, found a 
place of refuge. They settled on the Delaware, and, 
united by the common sufferings endured for their convic- 
tions, they founded a city, to which they gave the sugges- 

' The article here translated from the Dutch, and annotated, ap- 
peared in the " Doopsgezinde Bijdragen " for 1869, under the title 
of " Vriendschapsbetrekkingen tusschen de Doopsgezinden hier te 
lande en die in Pennsylvanie.'' 



178 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

tive name of the city of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia). 
The province i'^self received the name of Pennsylvania 
from the man who brought its settlers over from a land 
of persecution to his own estate, and has borne it to the 
present time, though its boundaries have been extended 
on the north to Lake Erie, and on the west beyond the 
Allegheny mountains to the present Ohio. 

In accordance with the fundamental law established 
April 25th, 1682, c<)raplete freedom of conscience was as- 
sured to all religious communities, and William Penn and 
his associates saw a stream of those who had been perse- 
cuted and oppressed for their belief pour into the colony, 
among whom were many Mennonites from Switzerland 
and the Palatinate. 

In Switzerland for nearly half a century religious intol- 
erance had been most bitter. Many who had remained 
there were then persuaded to abandon their beloved native 
country and betake themselves to the distant land of 
freedom, and others, who had earlier emigrated to Alsace 
and the Palatinate, and there endured the dreadful horrors 
of the war in 1690, joined them, hoping in a province 
described to them as a paradise to find the needed com- 
forts of life. The travelling expenses of these exhausted 
wanderers on their way through our fatherland were 
furnished with a liberal hand from the " funds for foreign 
needs " which our forefathers had collected to aid the 
Swiss, Palatines, and Litthauers. These emigrants settled 
for the most part at Philadelphia, and to the northward 
along the Delaware. 

One of the oldest communities, if not tlie oldest of all, 
was that at Schiebach or Germantown. The elder ot 
their two preachers, Wilhelm Rittinghausen, died in 1708, 
and in his place two new preachers were chosen. The 
same year eleven young people were added to the church 



MENNOKITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 179 

through baptism, and two new deacons accepted its obliga- 
tions. Moreover, the emigration of other brethren from 
the Palatinate, with Peter Kolb at their head, who were 
enabled to make the journey by the aid of the Nether- 
landers, gave a favorable prospect of considerable growth. 
Financially, however, the circumstances of the community 
left much to be desired. In a letter written to Amsterdam,, 
dated September 3d, 1708, from which these particulars are 
derived, and which was signed by Jacob Gaetschalck, 
Harmen Karsdorp, Martin Kolb, Isack Van Sinteren, and 
Oonradt Jansen, they presented " a loving and friendly 
request " for " some catechisms for the children and little 
testaments for the young." Beside, psalm books and 
Bibles were so scarce that the whole membership had but 
one copy, and even the meeting-house needed a Bible. ^ 
They urged their request by saying "that the community 
is still weak, and it would cost much money to get them 
printed, while the members who came here from Germany 
have spent everything and must begin anew, and all 
work, in order to pay for the conveniences of life of which 
they stand in need." What the printing would cost can 

■ ■ It is certainly worthy of attention that the first request these 
people send back to their brethren in Europe was for Bibles and 
Testaments. Jacob Gaetschalck was a preacher at Skippack. 
Martin Kolb, a grandson of Peter Schuhmacher who died at Ger- 
mantown in 1707, was born in the village of Wolfsheim, in the 
Palatinate, in 1680, and came with his brothers, Johannes and 
Jacob, to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1707. He married May 19th,. 
1709, Magdaleiia, daughter of Isaac Van Sintern, who also united in 
this letter. Isaac Van Sintern was born September 4th, 1662, and 
was a great-grandson of Jan de Voss, a burgomaster at Handschooten,. 
in Flanders, about 1550. He married in Amsterdam, Cornelia 
Glaassen, of Hamburg, and came to Pennsylvania with four daugh- 
ters after 1687. He died August 23d, 1737, and is buried at Skip- 
pack. 



180 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

to some extent be seen from the demands of a bookseller 
in New York, who beside only printed in English, for the 
publication of the Confession of Faith in that language. 
He asked so much for it that the community could not by 
any possibility raise the money, for which reason the 
whole plan had to be abandoned.-^ The proposition was • 
first considered because of conversations with some people 
there whose antecedents were entirely unknown, but 
*' who called themselves Mennonites," descendants perhaps 
of the Dutch or English colonists who in the first years of 
the settlement established themselves on the territory of 
Pennsylvania. That the young community was composed 
of other people besides Palatines has been shown by the 
letter just mentioned, bearing the Netherlandish signature 
of Karsdorp, a name much honored among our forefathers, 
and which has become discredited through late occur- 
rences at Dordrecht. 

It is no wonder that a half year later the " committee 
■on foreign needs " cherished few hopes concerning the 
colony. They felt, however, for nine or ten families who 
had come to Rotterdam — according to information from 
there, under date of April 8th, 1709 — from the neighbor- 
hood of Worms and Frankenthal, in order to emigrate, 
and whom they earnestly sought to dissuade from making 
the journey. They were, said the letter from Rotterdam, 
"altogether very poor men, who intended to seek a better 
place of abode in Pennsylvania. Much has been ex- 
pended upon them hitherto freely, and these people bring 
with them scarcely anything that is necessary in the way of 
raiment and provisions, much less the money that niust be 
spent for fare from here to England, and from there on 
the great journey, before they can settle in that foreign 

' See note upon page 41. 



MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 181 

land." Naturally the Rotterdamers asked that money be- 
furnished for the journey and support of the emigrants. 
But the committee, who considered the matter " useless 
and entirely unadvisable," refused to dispose in this way 
of the funds entrusted to them. It was the first refusal 
of the kind, and little did the committee think that for 
twentj^-four years they must keep repeating it before such 
requests should entirely cease. It would in fact have- 
been otherwise if they had begun with the rule which 
they finally adopted in 1732, or if the determination they 
expressed in letter after letter had been followed by like 
action, and they had not let themselves be persuaded 
away from it continually — sometimes from perplexity^ 
but oftener from pity. The Palatines understood the- 
situation well. If they could only reach Holland without 
troubling themselves about the letters, if they were only 
urgent and persevering, the committee would end by 
helping them on their way to Pennsylvania. The 
emigrants of April, 1709, accomplished their objects 
though as it appears through the assistance of others. At 
all events, I think, they are the ones referred to by Jacob 
Telner, a Netherlander Mennonite dwelling at London, 
who wrote, August 6th, to Amsterdam and Haarlem r 
" Eight families went to Pennsylvania ; the English 
Friends, who are called Quakers, helped them liberally.''* 
His letter speaks of others who also wanted to follow 

' " But not only did the leaders of the early Society of Frienda 
take great interest in the Mennonites, but the Yearly Meeting of 
1709 contributed fifty pounds (a very large sum at that time) for 
the Mennonites of the Palatinate Avho had fled from the persecution 
of the Calvinists in Switzerland. This required the agreement of 
the representatives of above 400 churches, and shows in a strong 
light the sympathy which existed among the early Friends for th& 
Mennonites.'' — Barclayh Religioics Societies of the ComTnonwealthy 
251. 



182 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

their example, and urges more forcibly than ever the 
people at Rotterdam to give assistance. " The truth is," 
he writes, " that many thousands of persons, old and 
young, and men and women, have arrived here in the 
hope and expectation of going to Pennsylvania, but the 
poor men are misled in their venture. If they could 
transport themselves by their own means, they might go 
where they pleased, but because of inability they cannot 
do it, and must go where they are ordered. Now, as 
there are among all this multitude six families of our 
brethren and fellow-believers, I mean German Mennonites, 
who ought to go to Pennsylvania, the brethren in Holland 
should extend to them the hand of love and charity, for 
they are both poor and needy. I trust and believe, how- 
ever, that they are honest and God-fearing. It would be 
a great comfort and consolation to the poor sheep, if the 
rich brothers and sisters from their superfluities would 
satisfy their wants, and let some crumbs fall from their 
tables to these poor Lazaruses. Dear brethren, I feel a 
tender compassion for the poor sheep, for they are of our 
flesh, as says the Prophet Isaiah, Ixviii, 7 and 8." 

It was not long before pity for our fellow-believers was 
excited still more forcibly. Fiercer than ever became 
the persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland. The 
prisons at Bern were filled with the unfortunates, and the 
inhuman treatment to which they were subjected caused 
many to pine away and die. The rest feared from day 
to day that the minority in the council which demanded 
their trial would soon become a majority. Through the 
intercession, however, of the States General, whose aid 
the Netherland Mennonites sought, not without success, 
some results were effected. The Council of Bern finally 
determined to send the prisoners, well watched and guar- 
ded, in order to transport them from there in an English 



MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 183 

ship to Pennsylvania. On the 18th of March, 1710, the 
exiles departed from Bern ; on the 28th, with their ves- 
sel, they reached Manheim, and on the 6th of April 
Nimeguen ; and when they touched Netherland soil, their 
sufferings came to an end at last ; they were free, and 
their useless guards could return to Switzerland. Laurens 
Hendriks, the preacher of our community at Nimeguen, 
wrote in his letter of April 9th : "It happened that very 
harsh decrees were issued by the rulers at Bern to search 
for our friends in all corners of the land, and put them in 
the prisons at Bern, by which means within the last two 
years about sixty persons were thrown into dungeons, 
where some of them underwent much misery in the great 
€old last winter, while their feet were fast in the iron 
shackles. The Council at Bern were still very much at 
variance as to what punishment should be inflicted on 
them, and so they have the longer lain in prison ; for 
■some would have them put to death, but others could not 
consent to such cruelty, so finally they determined in 
the Council to send them as prisoners to Pennsylvania. 
Therefore they put them on a vessel, well watched by a 
guard of soldiers, to send them on the Bhine to Holland ; 
but on coming to Manheim, a city of the Palatinate, they 
put out all the old, the sick, and the women, but with 
twenty-three men floated further down the Rhine, and en 
the 6th of April came here to Nimeguen. When they 
heard that their fellow-believers lived here, one of them 
came to me, guarded by two soldiers. The soldiers then 
went away and left the man with me. After I, with the 
other preachers, had talked with him, we went together 
to the ship, and there found our other brethren. We 
then spoke to the officers of the guard, and arranged with 
them that these men should receive some refreshment, 
since they had been on the water for twenty days in 



i 



184 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPTIIOAL SKETCHBiS. 

great misery, and we brought them into the city. Then 
we said to our iraprii-oned brethren : The soldiers shall 
not get you out of here again easily, for if they use force, 
we will complain to our magistrates. This, however, did 
not happen. They went about in Iretr^doin, and we re- 
mained with them and witnessed all the manifestations 
of love and friendship with the greatest joy. We spent 
the time together delightfully, and after they were 
entirely refreshed, tliey the next day departed, though 
they moved with difficulty, because btifTened from their 
long imprisonment. I went with them for an hour and 
a half beyond the city, and there we, with weeping eyes 
and swelling hearts, embraced eacti other, and with a 
kiss of peace separated. They returned to the Palatinate 
to seek their wives and children, who are scattered every- 
where in Switzerland, in Alsace, and in the Palatinate, 
and they know not where they are to be found. ^ Thev 
were very patient and cheerful under oppression, though 
all their worldly goods were taken away. Among them 
were a preacher and two deacons. They were naturally 
very rugged people, who could endure hardships ; they 
wore long and unshaven beards, disordered clothing, great 
shoes, which were heavily hammered with iron and large 
nails ; they were very zealous to serve God with prayer 
and reading and in other ways, and very innocent in all 
their doings as lambs and doves. They asked me in what 
way the community was governed. I explained it to them^ 
and it pleased them very much. But we could hardly 
talk with them, because, as they lived in the mountains 

' This simple picture is fully as pathetic as that other, which it 
forcibly suggests, beginning: — 

" Heu ! misero conjunx, fatone erepta, Creusa 
Substitit, erravit ne via, sen lassa residit, 
Incertum ; nee post oculis est reddita nostris." 



MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 185 

of Switzerland, far from cities and towns, and had little 
intercourse with other men, their speech is rude and un- 
couth, and they hav€ difficulty in understanding; any one 
who does not speak just their way. Two of them have 
2one to Deventer, to see whether thev can iiet a liveli- 
liood in tliis country." 

Most of them went to the Palalinate to seek their 
kinsmen and friends, and betore long a deputation from 
them came hack here. On the first of May we find 
three of their preachers, Hans Burchi or Burghalter,^ 
Melchoir Zaller, and Benedict Breclitbiihl,^ with Hans 
Rub and Peter Donens, in Amsterdam, where they gave 
a further account of their aiiairs with the Bern magis- 
tracy, and apparently consulted with the committee as to 
whether they should establish themselves near the Pala- 
tinate brethren or on the lauds in the neighborhood of 
Campen and Groningen, which was to be gradually pur- 
chased by the committee on behalf of the fugitives. The 
majority preferred a residence in the Palatinate, but they 
soon f»und great difficulty in accomplishing it. The Pal- 
atinate community was generally poor, so that the breth- 
ren, with the best disposition, could be of little service in 
insuring the means of gaining a livelihood ; there was a 
scarcity of lands and farm-liouses, and there was much to 
be desired in the way of religious liberty, since they were 
subject entirely to the humors of the Elector, or, worse 
still, his officers. For nearly seven years, often suppoi'ted 
by the Netherland brethren, they waited and persevered, 
always hoping for better times. Then, their numbers 



^ Hans Burghalter came to America, and was a })reacuer at Con- 
estoga, Lancaster County, in 1727. 

^ According to Rupp, Bernhard B. Breclitbulil translated the 
Wandelnde Seek into the German from the Dutch. 

i2 



186 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

being continually increased by new fugitives and exiles 
from Switzerland, they finally determined upon other 
measures, and, at a meeting of their elders at Manheim, 
in February, 1717, decided to call upon the Netherlanders 
for help in carrying out the great plan of removing to 
Pennsylvania, which they had long contemplated, and 
which had then come to maturity. Strange as it may 
appear at first glance, the very land to which the Swiss 
tyrants had once wanted to banish them had then become 
the greatest attraction. Still there was reason enough 
for it; reason, perhaps, in the information which their 
brethren sent from there to the Palatinate, but before all, 
in the pressing invitation or instruction of the English 
King, George I., through his agent (Muntmeester) Ochse, 
at the court. "Since it has been observed," so reads the 
beginning of this remarkable paper, " that the Christians, 
called Baptists or Mennonites, have been denied freedom 
of conscience in various places in Germany and Switzer- 
land, and endure much opposition from their enemies, so 
that with difficulty they support themselves, scattered 
here and there, and have been hindered in the exercise of 
their religion," the king offers to them for a habitation 
the country west of the Allegheny mountains, then con- 
sidered a part of Pennsylvania, but not yet belonging to 
it. Each family should have fifty acres of land in fee 
simple, and for the first ten years the use, without 
■charge, of as much more as they should want, subject 
■only to the stipulation that after this time the yearly rent 
for a hundred acres should be two shillings, i. e., about a 
(guilder, less six kreutzers. " There is land enough 
for a hundred thousand families. They shall have 
permission to live there, not as foreigners, but on their 
engagement, without oath, to be true and obedient to 
the king, be bound aa lawful subjects, and possess their 



MENNONITE EMIGEATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 187 

land with the same right as if they had been born such, 
and, witliout interference, exercise their religion in meet- 
ings, just as do the Reformed and Lutherans." After 
calHng attention to the fact that in eastern Pennsylvania 
the land was too dear (£20 to £100 sterling for a hun- 
•dred acres), the climate in Carolina was too hot, New 
York and Virginia were already too full for them to settle 
there with good chances of success, an attractive descrip- 
tion of the country followed in these words : " This land 
is in a good and temperate climate, not too hot or too 
•cold ; it lies between the 39th and 43d parallels of nortli 
latitude, and extends westward about two hundred Ger- 
man miles. It is separated from Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania by high mountains ; the air is very pure, since it 
lies high ; it is very well watered, having streams, brooks 
and springs, and the soil has the reputation of being bet- 
ter than any that can be found in Pennsylvania and 
Virginia. Walnut, chestnut, oak, and mulberry trees 
grow naturally in great profusion, as well as many fruit- 
bearing trees, and the wild white and purple grapes in 
the woods are larger and better than in any other place 
in America. The soil is favorable for wheat, barley, rye, 
Indian corn, hemp, flax, and also silk, besides producing 
many other useful things much more abundantly than in 
Germany. A field can be easily planted for from ten to 
twenty successive years without manure. It is also very 
suitable for such fruits as apples, pears, cherries, prunes, 
quinces, and especially peaches, which grow unysually 
well and bear fruit in three years from the planting of 
the stone. All garden crops do very well, and vineyards 
can be made, since the wild grapes are good, and would 
be still better if they were dressed and pruned. Many 
horses, cattle, and sheep can be raised and kept, since an 
excellent grass grows exuberantly. Numbers of hogs 



188 HISTOEICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

can be fattened on the wild fruits in tlie hushes. Thi& 
land is also full of cattle (rundvee), called buffaloes and 
elks, none of vvhicli are seen in Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
or Carolina. Twenty or thirty of these butfaloes are 
found together. There are also nianv hears, which hurt 
nobody. They feed upon leaves and wild fruits, on 
which they get very fat, and their flesh is excellent. 
Deer exist in great numbers, beside Indian cocks and 
hens (turkeys?), which weigh from twenty to thirty 
pounds each, wild pigeens more than in any other place 
in the world, partridges, pheasants, wild swans, geese, all 
kinds of ducks, and many other small fowls and animals ; 
so that if the settlers can only supply theiiiselves for the 
first year with bread, some cows for milk and butter, and 
vegetables, such as potatoes, peas, beans, etc., they can 
find flesh enough to eat from the many wild animals and 
birds, and can live better than the richest nobleman. 
The only difficulty is that they will be about thirty miles 
from the sea ; but this, by good management, can be 
made of little consequence." 

Apparently this description sounded like enchantment 
in the ears of the poor Swiss and Palatines who had never 
known anything but the thin soil of their native country, 
and who frequently met with a refusal if they sought to 
secure a farm of one or two acres. And how was that 
land of promise to be reached? Easily enough. They 
had only before the Ist of March to present themselves to 
one or another well-known merchant at Frankfort, pay £3 
sterling or twenty-seven guilders each (children under ten 
years of age at half rates), that is, £2 for transportation,, 
and £1 for seventy pounds of biscuit, a measure and a 
half of peas, a measure of oatmeal, and the necessary beer, 
and immediately they would be sent in ships to Rotter- 
dam, thence to be carried over to Virginia. First, how- 



MENNOMTE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 189 

«ver, in Holland, one-half of the fare must be paid and 
additional provisions, etc., secured, viz. : twenty-four 
pounds of dried beef, fifteen pounds of cheese, and eight 
and a quarter pounds of butter. Indeed, they were ad- 
vised to provide themselves still more liberally with 
edibles, and with garden seeds and agricultural imple- 
ments, linen, shirts, beds, table goods, powder and lead, 
furniture, earthenware, stoves, and especially money to 
buy " seeds, salt, horses, swine, and fowls," to be taken 
along with them. All of these things would indeed cost 
a large sum, but what did that signify in comparison with 
the luxury whicli was promised them ? Should not the 
Netherland brethren quickly and gladly furnish this last 
assistance ? So thought the Palatine brethren. Tt is 
not to be wondered at, however, that the " committee on 
foreign needs" judged differently. They knew how much 
exaggeration there was in the picture painted by the 
English agent. They thought they were not authorized 
to consent to a request for assistance in the payment of 
travelling expenses, since the money was intrusted to 
them to be expended alone for the persecuted, and the 
brethren in the Palatinate were then tolerated; they 
feared the emigrants would call for more money ; and 
in a word they opposed the plan most positively, and 
explained that if it was persisted in no lielp need be ex- 
pected. _ Their objection however accomplished nothing. 
In reply to their views, the committee received informa- 
tion, March 20th, that more than a hundred [persons had 
started; and three weeks later they heard from Rotterdam 
that those already coming numbered three hundred, 
among whom were four very needy families who required 
600 f. for their passage, and that thirty others were get- 
ting ready to leave Neuwied. Though the committee 
had declared positively in their letters that they would 



190 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

have nothing to do with tlie wliole affair, thev neverthe- 
less immediately passed a secret rf-solution, that, " as far 
as concerns our committee, the frieu'ls are to be helped as- 
much as possible ;" and apparently they took care that 
there should be furnished from private means what a& 
ofHcials tliev could not o;ive out of the fund. Among the 
preachers who were at the head of these colonists, we find 
principally Hans Burghalter and Benedict Brechtbuhl. 

The desire for emigration seemed to be entirely ap- 
peased in the Palatinate until 1726, when it broke out 
again with renewed force. The chief causes were higher 
burdens imposed upon them by the Elector, the fear of 
the outburst of war, and perhaps also pressing letters of 
invitation written by the friends settled in Pennsylvania. 
Moreover, the committee were guilty of a great impru- 
dence. Though they so repeatedly assured the emigrants 
that they could not and would not help them, and prom- 
ised liberal assistance to the needy Palatines who aban- 
doned the journey, still, through pit}' for a ceitain 
Hubert Brouwer of Neuwied, they gave him and his 
family 300f. passage-money. Either this became known 
in the Palatinate, or the stream could no longer be stayed. 
Though some of their elders, together with the committee, 
tried to dissuade them, and painted horrible pictures of 
the possibility that, in the war between England and 
Spain, they might " by Spanish ships be taken to the 
West Indies where men are sold as slaves," the Palatines- 
believed not a word of it. On the 12th of April, 1727, 
there were one hundred and fifty ready to depart, and on 
the 16th of May, the committee were compelled to write 
to the Palatinate that they "ought to be informed of the 
coming of those already on the way, so that they can best 
provide for them ;" and they further inquired " how many 
would arrive without means, so that the Society might 



MENIs'OMTE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 191 

consider whether it would be possible for them to arrange 
for the many and great expenses of the passage." 

Some did not need help, and could supply from their 
own means what was required ; but on the 20th the com- 
mittee learned that forty-five more needy ones had started 
from the Palatinate. These with eight others cost the 
Society 3271f. lost. Before the end of July twenty-one 
more came to Rotterdam, and so it continued. No 
wonder that the committee, concerned about such an out- 
pouring, requested the community in Pennsylvania "to 
announce emphatically to all the people from the pulpit 
that they must no more advise their needy friends and 
acquaintances to come out of the Palatinate, and should 
encourage them with the promise that, if they only re- 
mained accross tlie sea, they would be liberally provided 
for in everything." If, however, they added, the Penn- 
sylvanians wanted to ])ay for the passage of the poor 
Palatines, it would then of course be their own affair. 
This the Pennsylvanians were. not ready nor in a condi- 
tion to do. The committee also sent forbidding; letter 
after letter to the Palatinate, but every year they had to 
be repeated, and sometimes, as, for instance, May 6th, 
1733, they drew frightful pictures : " We learn from New 
York that a ship from Rotterdam going to Pennsylvania 
with one hundred and fifty Palatines wandered twenty- 
four weeks at sea When they finally arrived at port 
nearly all the people were dead. The rest, through tlie 
want o^uivi^es, were forced to subsist upon rats and vermin, 
and are all sick and weak. The danger of such an oc- 
currence is always so great that the most heedless do not run 
the risk except through extreme want." Nevertheless 
the stream of emigrants did not cease. When finally 
over three thousand of different sects came to Rotterdam, 
the committee, June 15th, 1732, adopted the strong reso- 



192 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

lution, that under no pretence would they furnish means 
to needy Palatines, except to pay their fares back to their 
fatherland. By rigidly maintaining this rule, and thus 
ending where they undoubtedly should have commenced, 
the committee put a complete stop to emigration. On 
the 17th of March they reported that they had already 
accomplished their object, and from that time they 
were not again troubled with requests for passage-money 
to North America.-^ In the meanwhile their adherence to 
this resolution caused some coolness between the commu- 
nities in the Netherlands and in Pennsylvania. Still 
their intercourse was not entirely terminated. A special 
circumstance gave an impulse which turned the Pennsyl- 
vanians again toward our brotherhood in 1742. Their 
colony had increased wonderfully ; they enjoyed prosper- 
itv, rest, and what the remembrance of foreign sufferings 
made more precious than all, complete religious freedom ; 
but they talked with some solicitude about their ability 
to maintain one of their points of belief — absolute non- 
participation in war, even defensive. They had at first 
been so few in numbers that they were unnoticed by the 
government, but now it was otherwise. Could they, when 
a general arming of the people was ordered to repel a 
hostile invasion of the neighboring French colonists or an 
incursion of the Indians, refuse to go, and have their con- 

^ This is of course correct as far as tlie committee at Amsterdam 
is concerned, but neither emigration nor Mennonite aid ended at 
this time. The Schwenckfelders, some of whom came over only the 
next year, .speak in warm and grateful terms of the aid rendered 
them by the MtMinonites. Their MS. journal, now in the posses- 
sion of Abraham H. Cassel, says '' Mr. Henry Van der Smissen 
gave us on the ship 16 loaves of bread, 2 Dutch cheeses, 2 tubs of 
butter, 4 casks of beer, two roasts of meat, much flour and biscuit, 
and 2 bottles of French brandy, and otherwise took good care of us " 



MENNONITE EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 193 

scientious scruples respected? They were in doubt about 
it, and little indications seemed to warrant their uncer- 
tainty. The local magistracy and the deputed authori- 
ties looked favorably upon their request for complete 
freedom from military service, but explained that they 
were without the power to grant the privilege which they 
thought existed in the King of England alone. In con- 
sequence of this explanation the Pennsylvania Alennonites 
resolved to write, as they did under date of May 8th, 
1742, to Amsterdam and Haarlem, and ask that the com- 
munities there would bring their powerful influence to bear 
upon the English Court in their behalf, as had been done 
previously through the intervention of the States-General 
when alleviation was obtained in the case of the Swiss 
and Litthauer brethren. This letter seems to have mis- 
carried. It cannot be found in the archives of tlie Am- 
sterdam community, and their minutes contain no refer- 
ence to it, so that its contents would have remained entirely 
unknown if the Pennsylvanians had not written again 
October 19th, 1745, complaining of the silence upon this 
side, and repeating in a few words what was said in it. 
Though it is probable that the letter of 1742 was not re- 
ceived, it may be that our forefathers laid it aside unan- 
wered, thinking it unadvisable to make the intervention re- 
quested before the North American brethren had substantial 
difficulty about the military service, and it must be re- 
marked that in the reply, written from here to the second 
letter, there is not a word said upon this subject, and 
allusions only are made to things which, in comparison, 
the Pennsylvanians surely thought were of much less im- 
portance. 

In the second part of their letter of October, 1745, which 
is in German, the Pennsylvanians write, "as the flames 
of war appear to mount higher, no man can tell whether 



194 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the cross and persecution of the defenceless Christians 
will not soon come, and it is therefore of importance to 
prepare ourseK^es for such circumstances with patience 
and resignation, and to use all available means that can 
encourage steadfastness and strengtlien faith. Our whole- 
community liave manifested an unanimous desire for a 
German translation of the Bloody Theatre of Tielemani 
Jans Van Braght, especially since in this community 
there is a very great number of newcomers, for whom we 
consider it to be of the greatest importance that they 
should become acquainted with the trustworthy witnesses 
who have walked in the way of truth, and sacrificed their 
lives for it." They further say that for years they had 
hoped to undertake the work, and the recent establish- 
ment of a German printing office had revived the wish, 
but "the bad paper always used here for printing" dis 
couraged them. The greatest difficulty, however, was to 
find a suitable translator, upon whose skill they couhl 
entirely rely, without the fear that occasionally the 
meaning would be perverted. Up to that time no one 
bad appeared among them to whom they could give tlie 
work with perfect confidence, and they therefore requested 
the brethren in Holland to look around for such a 
translator, have a thousand copies printed, and send them 
bound, with or without clasps and locks, or in loose 
sheets, to Pennsylvania, not, however, until they had 
sent over a complete account of the cost. The letter is 
dated at Schiebach, and bears the signatures of Jacob 
Godschalck, Martin Kolb, Michael Ziegler/ Heinrich 



^ Michael Ziegler, as early as 1722, lived near the present Skip- 
packville, in Montgomery County, and was, for at least thirty years^ 
one of the elders of the Skippack Church. He died at an advanced 
age about 1763, and left £9 to the poor of that congregation. 



MENXONITP: KMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 195 

Funck,^ Gi'ilis Kassel,^ and Dielman Kolb. Not until the 
10th of February, 1748, did the "Committee on Foreign 

^ Henry Funk, always one of the most able and enterprising of 
the Mennonite preachers, and long a bishop, settled on the Indian 
Creek, in Franconia Township, now Montgomery County, in 1719. 
He was ever faithful and zealous in his work, and did much to ad- 
vance the interests of his church. He wrote a book upon baptism, 
entitled " Ein Spiegel der Taufe," published by Saur in 1744, which 
has passed through at least five editions. A more ambitious effort 
was the " Erklarung einiger hanpt-puncten des Gesetzes," published 
after his death by Armbruster, in 1763. This book was reprinted 
at Biel, Switzerland, in 184J, and at Lancaster, Pa., in 1862, and 
is much esteemed. He and Dielman Kolb supervised the transla- 
tion of Van Braght's Martyr's Mirror from the Dutch to the Ger- 
man, and certified to its correctness. Beside these labors, which, 
were all Avithout pecuniary compensation, he was a miller, and 
acquired a considerable estate. He died about 1760. 

' Yillis Kassel came to Pennsylvania in the year 1727, and was a 
preacher at Skippack, and one of the representative men of the 
church. His father or grandfather, Yillis Kassel, was also a Men- 
nonite preacher at Kriesheim in 1665, and wn^ote a Confession of 
Faith and a number of MS. poems, which are now in the possession 
of his descendant, the noted antiquary, Abraham H. Cassel. They 
describe very vividly the horrible condition of the Rhine country at 
that time, and the sufi^erings of the peojDle of his faith. The com- 
position was frequently interrupted by such entries as these : ''And 
now we must flee to Worms," "In Kriesheim, to which we have 
again come home." From one of them I extract : — ■ 
"Denn es ist bekannt und ofFenbar, 
Was Jammer, Elend, und Gefahr 
Gewesen ist umher im Land 
Mit Rauben, Pliindern, Mord, und Brand. 
Manch Mensch gebracht in Angst und Noth 
Geschandeliert auch bis zum Tod. 
Zerschlagen verhauen manch schoenes Haus, 
Vielen Leuten die Kleider gezogen aus ; 
Getreid, und Vieh hinweggefiihrt, 
Viel Jammer und Klag hat man gehort." 
A copy of the first German edition of Menno Simon's Foundatiorj 



196 IIISTORK^AL AND HKM IRAIMI ICA I. SKKTCMI KH. 

N(;edH," in w1u)H(! hands Uio letter was j)laced, I'iikI time 
to H(Mi(l !ui ariswor. lis tcaor was entirely unfavorable. 
Tliey tli<iUL!;lil IIh' tninslalion " wIidIU' and entirely im- 
practicable, as well bcciuiso it would \)('. diflicult to find a 
translator as IxMiause of the immense expense which 
would be incurred, and which they could veiy easily 
avoid." As "this book could certainly be found in the 
community, and there were some of th(^ brclhren who 
understood the Dutch language," it was suggested " to 
get them to translate int.o the German some of tbe chief 
histories whenMu mention is mjide of the confessions of the 
martyrs, and which would serve for the j)ur|iose, ami 
have tluMii co|)ie(l by Ihe young p(H)|)l(>." By so doir)g 
they would secure " the double advantage that, through 
the co|)ying they woidd give more thought, to it, and 
receive a stronger impr(>ssion." 

The Norl h American ln'cthren, aJ least, got th(> benefit 
of the infoi'mation contained in this \V(dl m(>ant counsel 
sent two and a half years late, in the meaji time they 
had themselves zealously taken hold of the work, and 
before t.Iu^ re(u>ption of the lett-er from Holland accom- 
plished t-li(>ir purpose. That sanu' year, 171S, the com- 
plete translation of the MartAi^'s Mirror of Tieleman Jans 
Van Braght sa.w the light, at lliphrat.a,. It was after- 
wards printed, with the pictures from the original added, 
at Pirmas(Mis in the i^avarian Palat.ina,te, in I7''^0, and 
this second ('(lition is slill frequently found among our 
fellow membcM's in (iermaiiy, Switzerland, and the moun- 
tains of the Vosges. 

Though \\ic completion of this very costly undertaking 
gives a favorable idea of the energy and lina.ncial strength I 

{1575), which l)oloiigt'(l to the younger YiUis, and is, so tar as 
known, tho only copy in Anioriua, is now in my library. 



MKNNONITK KMIGllATlON TO PKNN8YLVANI A. 19'7 

of the North American coinniunity, they had to struggle 
with adversity, and were coiripolled, ten years later, to 
call for the charity of their Netherlarid brethren. Nineteen 
familien of thern had settled in Virginia, " hut because of 
the cruel and barbarous Indians, who had already killed 
and carried away as prisoners so many of our people," 
they fled back to Pennsylvania. yVll of one family were 
rnurdei'ed, an<l the rest had lost all their possessions. 
Even in Pennsylvania two hundred families, through 
I'ecent incursions of the savages in May and June, lost 
everything, and their dead numbered fiity. In this 
dreadful deprivation they asked for help, and they sent 
two of their niunber, Johannes Schneyder and Martin 
Funck, to Holland, giving thern a letter dated September 
7th, 1758, signed by Michael Kaufman, Jacob Borner, 
Samuel Bohrn, and Daniel Stauffer The two envoys, 
who had themselves sorely sufl'^-red from the devastations 
of the war, acquitted themselves well of their mission on 
the 18th of the following December, when they secured 
an interview with the committee at Amsterdam. They 
made the impression of being " plain and honest people," 
gave all the explanations that were wanted, and received 
an answer to the letter they Ijrought, in which was 
inclosed a bill of exchange upon Philadelphia for £50 
sterling, equal to £78 lis, 5d. Pennsylvania currency, or 
550f. The newly chosen secretary of the cojiimittee, J. 
S. Centen, adds : " We then paid their expenses here, and 
supplied them with victuals and travellirjg money, and 
they departed December 17th, 1758, in the Hague packet 
boat." 

After this event all intercourse between the North 
American Mennonites and those in the Netherlands 
cefised, except that the publisher of the well-known 
"Name List of the Mennonite Preachers" endeavored, 



198 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

until the end of the last century, to obtain the necessary 
information from North iVmerica for his purpose ; but it 
is apparent, upon looking at the remarkable names of 
places, that very much is wanting. They wrote to him, 
liowever, that he might mention as distinct communities 
Schiebach,^ Germantown, Mateschen, Indian Kreek, 
Blen,^ Soltford,^ Rakkill,* Schwanin, Deeproom,^ Berko- 
sen,^ Anfrieds, Grotenswamp,^ Sackheim,^ Lower Milford, 
with two meeting houses, Hosensak, Lehay,® Term, 
Schuylkill, and forty in the neighborhood of Kanestogis.^" 
In 1786 the community in Virginia is also specially men- 
tioned. For some years this statement remained un- 
changed. The list of 1793 says that the number of the 
Mennonite communities of North America, distinct from 
the Baptists, was two hundred, and some estimate them 
at over three hundred, of which twenty-three were in the 
Pennsylvania districts of Lancaster and Kanestogis. 
This communication was kept unchanged in the Name 
List of 1810, but in the next, that of 1815, it was at last 
omitted, because, according to the compiler, Dr. A. N. 
Van Gelder, "for many years, at least since 1801, we 
have been entirely without knowledge or information." 

In 1856, R. Baird, in his well-known work, "Relig- 
ions in America," says that Pennsylvania is still the 
principal home of the Mennonites in the United States, 
and that they have four hundred communities, with two 
hundred or two hundred and fifty preachers and thirty 
thousand members, who are, for the most part in easy 
•circumstances. Perhaps these figures are correct, so far 
as concerns Pennsylvania ; but according to the " Confer- 

'Skippack. -'Plain. ' Salford. *Rockhill. 

"Deep Run. ' Perkasie. ' Great Swamp. * Saucon. 

' Lehigh. '° Conestoga. 



MKNNONITK EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 199 

€nce Minutes of the entire Mennonite Community in 
North America, held at West Point, Lpp County, Iowa, the 
28th and 29th of May, 1860," the number of the Mennon- 
ites in all the States of the Union amounted to 128,000. 
Aftf^r having for many years almost entirely neglected 
mutual relations, and separated into many small societies, 
they finally came to the conclusion that a firm covenant 
of brotherhood is one means to collect the scattered, to 
unite the divided, and to strengthen the weak. The dele- 
gates of the communities come together annually, as they 
did the present year from May 31st to June 3d, at Wads- 
worth, Ohio. On the 20th of May, 1861, they repeated 
in their own way what our fathers did fifty years earlier ; 
they founded a seminary for the service of the church, 
with which, since that time. Dr. Van der Smissen, for- 
merly minister at Frederickstadt, has been connected as 
professor and director. May it be to them as great a 
blessing as ours has been to us. 



Abraham and Dirck 
OP DEN Graeff. 



From Penn Monthly, September 1875. 



13 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF.' 



" Talking of old home scenes, op den Graaff 
Teased the low backlog with his shodden staff, 
Till the red embers broke into a laugh 
And dance of flame, as if they fain would cheer 
The rugged face, half tender, half austere, 
Touched with the pathos of a homesick tear!" 

Whittier. 

The history of Pennsylvania is as yet unwritten. 
When the typical American of to-day, momentarily 
wearied with the chase after wealth, an establishment, 
horses, a footman, and all those things which represent 
his conception of prosperity and practical happiness, stops 
to inquire, if ever lie does, concerning the men who foun- 
ded his country, who they were and whence they came, 
and what were the causes which have influenced the de- 
velopment of its civilization, his thoughts invariably turn 
toward Massachusetts. Plymouth rock looms up before 
him vast and imposing, but the Delaware flows by un- 
heeded. He is familiar with the story of the Mayflower, 
and her burden of strange folk destined to a barren shore 
is impressed vividly upon his imagination, but of the 
Welcome which sailed over the same sea, bearing a purer 
people to a better land, he has never heard a whisper. 
Why the chroniclers, who have so energetically and suc- 
cessfully tilled the one field, should neglect the other, it 

^ Many of the facts contained in this article have been obtained 
from Seidensticker's " Pastorius und die Grundung von German- 
town." 



204 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

is difficult to understand. Surely there is enough of 
romance to please the fancy, and much food for rugged 
thought, in the career of that son of a fighting old 
English admiral, who forsook the paths which seemingly 
led direct to fame and fortune, and, assuming the quaint 
ways and plain garb of a despised sect, preached its 
peaceful faith Caleb Pusey, going out unarmed into the 
forest to meet a threatened attack of the savages, is a 
more heroic figure than blustering Miles Standish, girt 
with the sword he fought with in Flanders. Lloyd, 
Logan, and Pastorius, trained in the schools of Europe, 
and versed in all the learning of their day, were men 
whose peers are rarely found among colonists. The 
Quaker, the Mennonite and the Moravian, mindful of 
how their fathers were harried from place to place with 
the prison behind and the stake threatening before, 
bringing across the ocean with them their Bibles and 
often nothing else, with hearts warm enough and a creed 
broad enough to embrace the religious wayfarer and wan- 
derer, as well as the negro and Indian, contrast favorably 
with the narrow and intolerant Puritan whose hand fell 
heavily upon all of different race, habits or belief from 
his own. Unfortunately, however, the German has been 
hard to assimilate, the Quaker repressed tendencies which 
seemed to him to partake of the vanities of the world, 
and the descendants of both nave been slow to grope 
with the lamp of the historian amid the lives of their 
forefathers. Much which ought to have been preserved 
has therefore been irretrievably lost ; but there still re- 
main in neglected and out of the way places rich harvests 
to be garnered by the future investigator, when a higher 
culture and the growth of a more correct taste have taught 
him their value. After all the materials have been gath- 
ered and winnowed so that the true measure of the in- 



fluence which has been exerted by the Quaker may be 
ascertained, he will thenceforth occupy the conspicuous 
position in the annals of the country to which he is enti- 
tled, but which lie has as yet scarcely begun to attain. 

Of recent years, since the loncr-continued strue;o;le with 
slavery in the United States pnded in its overthrow dur- 
ing the rebellion, the protest against that institution sent 
by four German Friends of Germantown to the quarterly 
meetino; in 1688, which was the first slimmerino- of the 
dawn of the contest, has grown to be famous. The men 
who prepared and signed this remarkable document 
slumbered in almost undisturbed obscurity until the 
scholarly Seidensticker published his sketches, and Whit- 
tier using the material thus collected, gave the name of 
Pastorius to the world in his beautiful poem. It is a 
little sad that Pastorius, whose life in America was spent 
here and who belonged to a mental and moral type 
entirely our own, should become celebrated as the Penn- 
sylvania Pilgrim, as if he could only obtain appreciation 
by the suggestion of a comparison with the men who 
landed at Plymouth ; but no poet arose along the Schuyl- 
kill to tell the tale, and we must recognize with gratitude, 
if with regret, how fittingly others have commemorated 
the worth of one whom we neglected. 

It is the purpose of this article to gather into one sheaf 
such scattered and fragmentary facts concerning the lives 
of two others of those four signers as have survived the 
lapse of nearly two hundred years. In the council of the 
Mennonite Church which set forth the eighteen articles 
of their confession of faith at the city of Dordrecht, April 
21st, 1632, one of the two delegates from Krevelt or 
Crefeld was Heraiann op den GraeflP. Of the antece- 



206 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

dents of this Hermann, nothing is known/ A tradition, 
current among some of the descendants, asserts that the 
family were Frendi-Gennans, but the name itself would 
seem to indicate a Dutch origin. A recent able writer 
upon the subject has suggested the query as to how far 
the founders of the Quakers were familiar with the doc- 
trines of the German Anabaptists, and intimates the 
opinion that the former sect was an outgrowth of the 
latter.''^ At all events, the plainness of dress and of 
speech, the opposition to warfare, lawsuits, and the 
taking of oaths, and others points of resemblance, ren- 
dered a transition from the one belief to the other compara- 
tively easy, so that George Fox, Eobert Barclay, and 
William Penn, found little difficulty in the establishment 
of Friends' meetings along the Rhine. The testimony of 
the yearly meeting at Amsterdam, 5 mo., 169B, says of 
Stepiien Crisp, a noted preacher, that " In the year 1667 
he visited the small company of Friends then living at a 
place called Kreysheim in the Palatinate," and "Another 
time he made a journey into the County of Meurs to the 
town of Crevel, where a meeting was set up." A priori 
we would expect the first German emigrants to Pennsyl- 
vania to come from these towns, as was the case ; and if 
we should make the farther inference that they were 

* When this article was written I had no knowledge of the 
Scheuten genealogy. That valuable MS. says that Hermann op 
den GraefF was born November 26th, 1585, at Aldekerk a village 
near the borders of Ilollaiul. He moved to Crefeld, and there 
married a Mennonite girl, Grietjen Pletjes daughter of Driessen, 
August 16th, 1605. He died December 27th, 1642, and she died 
January 7th, 1643. They had eighteen children, among whom 
was Isaac who was born February 28th 1616, and died January 
17th, 1670 He liad four children Hermann, Abraham, Dirck and 
Margaret all of whom emigrated to German town. 

'^ Authoress of the Pennsylvania Dutch. 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 207 

among the attendants at these Quaker meetings, we 
would probably not be far from the truth. When Pas- 
torius had concluded to cross the ocean, in order, as he 
says, " to lead a quiet and Christian life," he visited 
■during April, 1683, a number of his friends, to endeavor 
to persuade them to accompany him. At Cologne he 
found an acquaintance named Dotzen, who was willing, 
but he could not obtain the consent of his wife. The 
reasons she gave for declining were, that at home she 
went from place to place in a carriage, but in America 
'"must she perhaps look after the cattle and milk her 
cows." Madame Dotzen was evidently a clear-headed 
woman, who was too wise to exchange her present advan- 
tages and comforts for the uncertainties of a distant wil- 
derness. From Urdingen he went to Crefeld on foot, and 
there talked with Thones Kunders and his wife, and with 
Dirck, Hermann, and Abraham up den Graeff, three 
brothers, who were grandsons of the Mennonite dele- 
gate. Did they have some dim and vague conscious- 
ness of the great work which the}^ and their children 
under the guidance of Providence- were to perform ? 
Was it given to them to catch a glimpse of what that 
little colony, planted in an unknown land thousands of 
miles away, was in the course of a few generations to 
become, or was the hope of a religious peace alone suffi- 
cient to calm their doubts and allay their fears ? Six 
weeks later they followed Pastorius. At Rotterdam, on 
the way, on the 11th of June, they bought jointly from 
Jacob Telner two thousand acres of land to be laid out 
in Pennsylvania. On the 6th of October, 1683, together 
with Lenart Arets, Thones Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Wil- 
lem Streypers, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Jan Seimens, 
Johannes Bleikers, Abraham Tunes and Jan Lucken, 
their wives, children and servants, in all thirteen fami- 



208 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

lies, they arrived in Philadelphia. On the 24th, in Ger- 
mantown, they all drew lots for their respective locations, 
and immediately began to build the huts and dig the 
caves in which, with, as may be imagined, considerable 
inconvenience, they passed the following winter. Ger- 
mantown was laid out into fifty-five lots of fifty acres 
each, running along upon both sides of the main street^ 
and in 1689 Dirck op den Qraeff owned the second lot on 
the west side going north, Hermann the third, and Abra- 
ham the fourth, with another half lot further to the 
northward. All three were weavers of linen. Richard 
Frame, in a description of Pennsylvania in verse, pub- 
lished in 1692, refers to Germantown : 

"Where lives Sigh German People and Low Dutch 
Whose Trade in weaving Linnen Cloth is much. 
There grows the Flax, as also you may know 
That from the same they do divide the tow ;" 

and Gabriel Thomas, in his account of the " Province and 
Country of Pennsylvania," published in 1698, says they 
made " very fine German Linen, such as no person of 
Quality need be ashamed to wear." It may be fairly 
claimed for Abraham op den Graeff that he was the most 
skilled of these artisans, doing even more that his part to 
have the town merit its motto of " Vinum Linum et Tex- 
trinum' since on the 17th of 9th month, 1686, his peti- 
tion was presented to the Provincial Council, " for ye 
Govr's promise to him should make the first and finest 
pece of linnen cloath."^ Upon a bond given by him ta 
John Gibb in 1702 for 38/. 5s., afterward assigned to 
Joseph Shippen, and recorded in the Germantown book, 
are, among others, these items of credit : " Cloth 32 yds 

' Colonial records. Vol. i, p. 193. 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 209 

@ 35, 6c/." and "36i Linning @ 4s," showing the prices 
at which these fabrics were valued. 

On the 12th of 6th month, 1689, Penn issued to Dirck 
op den Graeff, Abraham op den Graeff, Hermann op den 
GraefF, called " Towne President," and eight others, a 
charter for the incorporation of Gerraantown, and directed 
Dirck, Hermann, and Thones Kunders to be the fir^t 
burgesses, and Abraham, with Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, 
Johannes Kassel, Heifert Papen, Hermann Bon and Dirck 
Van Kolk to be the first cornmittee-men. The bailiff and 
two eldest burgesses were made justices of the peace.-' 
This charter, however, did not go into effect until 1691. 
Under it, afterward, Dirck was bailiff' in the years 1693 
and 1694, and Abraham a burgess in 1692. Abraham 
was also elected a member of the Assembly for the years- 
1689, 1690 and 1692, sharing with Pastorius, who held 
the same position in 1687, the honor of being the only 
Germantown settlers who became legislators. 

Their strongest claim, however, to the remembrance of 
future generations, is based upon the protest hitherto 
referred to, signed by Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck op den 
Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius and Abraham op den 
Graeff. This historic document may be seen in the 
Grundung von Germantown — a work which should be 
made more accessible — Watson's Annals, Evan's Friends 
in the XVH. Century, and other books, but in all, 
except the first, the name of Abraham is found dis- 
torted by an original misprint, which is ever faithfully 
copied, and almost destroys its identity. Two hundred 
years have added few arguments and little strength to the 
objections which it urges. 

" Now, though they are black, we cannot conceive 

'Pennsylvania Archives. Vol. i, p. 3. 



210 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHIOAL SKETCHES. 

there is more liberty to iiave them slaves than it is to 
have other white ones." 

" Or have these poor negers not as much right to fight 
for their freedom as you have to keep them slaves ?" 

"Now, what is this better done than Turks do? Yea, 
rather is it worse for them which say they are Christians." 

The opinions of the writers are expressed in a sturdy 
and vigorous language, which, under the circumstances, 
was certainly remarkable. " But, to bring men hither, or 
to rob or sell them against their will, we stand against.'' 

It is probable, from the learning and ability of Pasto- 
rius, that he was the author of this protest, though there 
is no positive evidence of the fact ; but it is reasonably 
certain that Dirck op den Graeff bore it to the quarterly 
meeting at Richard Worrall's, and his is the only name 
mentioned in connection with its presentation to the yearly 
meeting, to which it was referred as a topic of too much 
importance to be considered elsewhere. Perhaps, also, 
it should be observed that among the signatures, his name 
precedes that of Pastorius, so that if any significance 
whatever attaches to this circumstance, it may not be 
forgotten. 

A short time after this earnest expression of humani- 
tarian sentiment had been laid away among neglected 
records, awaiting a more genial air and a stronger 
light in which to germinate, events of seemingly much 
more moment occurred to claim the attention of the 
Society of Friends. George Keith, whose memory is 
apostatized by them, and revered by Episcopalians, who 
had been one of the earliest and most e$"ective of their 
preachers, began to dififer with many of the leading mem- 
bers of the Society concerning questions of doctrine. In 
the nature of things, the defection of a man of such 
prominence was followed by that of many others. Dis- 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OF DEN GRAEFF. 211 

sensioa was inlroduceci into the meetings and clivii^ion and 
discord into families. In a quiet and peaceable way tlk- 
warfare was waged very bitterly and many harsh things 
were said softly. Dirck op den GraefT adhered to the 
cause of the Friends, but Abraham and Hermann were 
among the disaffected, and the three brothers seem to 
have become more deeply involved in the controversy 
than any of the other Germans. The numerous public dis- 
cussions which were held only served to confirm each 
faction in the correctness of its own rendering of the 
Scriptures ; the Friends who were sent to deal witli 
George privately and to indicate to him whither he was 
tending made little progress ; and the difficulty having 
become too great to be appeased, twenty- eight ministers 
presented a paper of condemnation against him at the 
monthly meeting at Frankford. Dirck op den GraefF, a 
magistrate in the right of his position as a burgess of Ger- 
mantown, was present at the meeting and must in some 
way have shown, an interest in the proceedings, since 
Keith called him publicly " an impudent Rascal." Most 
unfortunate words ! Uttered in a moment of thoughtless 
wrath, and repeated in the numerous pamphlets and 
broadsides which the occasion called forth, they returned 
again and again to plague their author. Beaten out in 
the fervor of religious and polemic zeal, they were con- 
strued to impliedly attack the civil government in the 
person of one of its trusted officers. Ere long, in reply to 
the testimony against Keith, the celebrated William 
Bradford printed " An appeal from the twenty-eight 
Judges to the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in all 
faithful Friends called Quakers that meet at this yearly 
meeting at Burlington, 7 mo., '92," signed by George 
Keith, George Hutcheson, Thomas Budd, John Hart, 
Richard Dungwoody and Abraham op den GraefF. The 



212 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Appeal is, in the main, an attempt to submit to tlie people 
the question whicli had been decided againt Keith by the 
Ministers as to whether the inner licrht was not alone in- 
sufficient, but it closes with the following pointed and 
pertinent queries : 

" 9. Whether the said 28 persons had not doce much 
better to have passed Judgment against some of their 
Brethren at Philadelphia (some of themselves being 
deeply guilty) for countenancing and allowing some called 
Quakers, and owning them in so doing, to hire men to 
fight ( and giving them a Commission so to do, signed by 
three Justices of the Peace called Quakers, one whereof 
being a Preacher among them) as accordingly they did, 
and recovered a Sloop, and took some Privateers by force 
of arms ? 

" 10. Whether hiring men thus to fight, and also to 
provide the Indians with Powder and L-^ad to fight 
against other Indians is not a manifest Transgression of 
our principle against the use of the carnal Sword and 
other carnal Weapons ? Whether these called Quakers 
in their so doing have not greatly weakened the Testi- 
mony of Friends in England, Barbadoes, cfec, who have 
suffered much for their refusing to contribute to uphold the 
Militia, or any Military force ? And whether is not their 
Practice here an evil President, if any change of govern- 
ment liappen in this place, to bring Sufferings on faithful 
Friends, that for Conscience sake refuse to contribute to 
the Militia? And how can they justly refuse to do that 
under another's Government, which they have done or 
allowed to be done under their own ? But in these and 
other things we stand up Witnesses against them, with all 
faithful Friends everywhere. 

" 11. Whether it be according to the Gospel that 
Ministers should pass sentence of Death on Malefactors, as 



ABRAHAM AND DIECK OP DEN GRAEFF. 213 

some pretended Ministers here have done, preaching one 
day Not to take an Eye for an Eye ( Matt. v. 38), and 
another day to contradict it by taking Life ? 

" 12. Whether there is any Example or President for 
it in Scripture, or in all Christendom, that Ministers 
should engross the worldly Government, as they do here ? 
which hath proved of a very evil tendency."^ 

There was enough of truth in the intimations contained 
in these queries to make them oflfensive and disagreeable. 
According to the account of it given by Caleb Pusey, an 
opponent of Keith, in his "Satan's Harbinger Encoun- 
tered," when Babbitt had stolen the sloop and escaped 
down the river, the three magistrates issued a warrant in 
the nature of a hue and cry, and a party of men went out 
in a boat and captured the robbers. As they were about 
to depart, Samuel Carpenter, a leading and wealthy 
Friend, stood up on the wharf and promised them one 
hundred pounds in the event of success. Doubtless they 
used some force ; but to call them militia, and the warrant 
a commission, was, to say the least for it, quite ingenious 
on the part of Keith. The Appeal had the effect of con- 
verting what had hitherto been purely a matter of Church 
into one of State. Bradford and John McComb was 
arrested and committed for printing it, but were afterward 
discharged. Keith and Budd were indicted before the 
grand jury, tried, convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of 
five pounds each. These proceedings caused as much ex- 
citement as our placid forefathers were capable of feeling, 
and became the subject of universal comment. The 
justices, Arthur Cooke, Samuel Jennings, Samuel Richard- 
son, Humphrey Murray, Anthony Morris, and Robert 

^ A mutilated copy of this Appeal is in the Friends' library on 
Arch street above Third. 



214 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Ewer met in private session on the 25tb of 6 mo , 1692, 
and issued tlie following proclamation of warninyj and ex- 
planation : 

" Whereas, the government of this Province, being by 
the late King of England's peculiar favor, vested and since 
continued in Governor Penn, who thought fit to make his 
and our worthy friend, Thomas Lloyd, his Deputy Gover- 
nor, by and under whom the Magistrates do act in the 
government, and wliereas it hath been ])roved before us 
that George Keith, being a resident here, did, contrary to 
his duty, publicly revile the said Deputy Governor by 
calling him an impudent man, telling him he was not lit 
to be a Governor, and that his name would stink, with 
many other slighting and abusive expressions, both to 
him and the magistrates : (and he that useth such exor- 
bitancy of speech towards our said Governor, may be 
supposed will easily dare to call the Members of Coun- 
cil and Magistrates impudent Rascals, as he hath lately 
called one in an open assembly, that was constituted by 
the Proprietary to be a Magistrate) and he also charged 
the Magistrates who are Magistrates here, with engross- 
ing the magisterial power into their hands, that they might 
usurp authority over him : saying also, he hoped in God, 
he should shortly see their power taken from them : All 
which he acted in an indecent manner. 

" And fai'ther, the said George Keith, with several of 
his adherents, having some few days since, with unusual 
insolence, by a printed sheet called an A|)peal, etc., tra- 
duced and vilely misrepresented the industry, care, readi- 
ness, and vigilance of some magistrates and others here, 
in their late proceedings against the privateers Babbitt 
and his crew, in order to bring them then to condign 
punishment, whereby to discourage such assemblies for 
the future ; and have thereby defamed and arraigned the 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 215 

determination of the principal judicature against Mur- 
derers ; and not only so, but also by wrong insinuations 
have laboured to possess the readers of their pamphlet^ 
that it is inconsistent for those who are Ministers of the 
Gospel to act as Magistrates, which if granted, will ren- 
der our said proprietary incapable of the powers ^iven 
him by the King's letters patent, and so prostitute the 
validity of every act of government, more especially in 
the executive part thereof, to the coiirtesie and censure of 
all factious spirits, and malcontents under the same, 

" Now forasmuch as we, as well as others, have borne 
and still do patiently endure the said George Keith and 
his adherents in their many personal reflections against 
us and their gross revilings of our religious Society, yet 
we cannot (without the violation of our trust to the King 
and governor, as also to the inhabitants of this govern- 
ment) pass by or connive at, such part of the said pamph- 
let and speeches, that have a tendency to sedition and dis- 
turbance of the peace, as also to the subversion of the 
present government, or to the aspersing of the magistrates 
thereof. Therefore for the undeceiving of all people, we 
have thought fit by this public writing not only to signify 
that our procedure against the persons now in the Sheriff's 
custody, as well as what we intend against others concerned 
(in its proper place) respects only that part of the said 
printed sheet which appears to have the tendency afore- 
said, and not any part relating to differences in religion, 
but also these are to caution such who are well affected 
to the security, peace and legal administration of justice 
in this place that they give no countenance to any re- 
vilers and contemners of authority, magistrates or magis- 
tracy, as also to warn all other persons that they forbear 



216 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the further publishing and spreading of the said pamph- 
lets, as they will answer the contrary at their peril. "^ 

" What we intend against others concerned," would 
seem to imply that a bolt was being forged over the heads 
of Abraham op den Graeff and the remaining three signers 
of tlie insolent pamphlet ; but it was never discharged. 
The yearly meeting at Burlington disowned Keith, and 
this action the yearly meeting at London confirmed. 
Dirck op den Graeff was one of those who signed the 
testimony against him and one of those giving a certifi- 
cate to Samuel Jennings, who went to London to repre- 
sent his opponents. Hermann op den Graeff, on the other 
hand, was among a minority of sixty-nine, who issued a 
paper at the yearly meeting at Burlington, ffivoring him. 
The results of this schism were extensive and grave. It 
placed a weapon in the hands of the enemies of Friends 
which they used in Europe, as well as here, without stint. 
Ecclesiastically it led to the foundation of the Episcopal 
Church in Pennsylvania. Politically it threatened to 
change the destinies of a Commonwealth, since it was one 
of the principal reasons assigned for depriving Penn of the 
control of his province. 

The incorporation of Germantown rendered necessary 
the opening of a court. In its records may be traced the 
little bickerings and contentions which mark the darker 
parts of the characters of these goodly people. Its pro- 
ceedings conducted with their simple and primitive ideaa 
of judicature, written in their quaint language, are both 
instructive and entertaining, since they show what man- 
ner of men these were, whose worst faults appear to have 
consisted in the neglect of fences and the occasional use 
of uncomplimentary adjectives. From among them is 

* Smith's History in Hazard's Register, Vol. vi., p. 281. 



ABRAHAM AN]) DTRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 217 

extracted wiiatever, during the course of about thirteen 
years, relates to the op den Graeffs. 

1696. "The 3d day of the 9th month, before the per- 
sons constituting this Court of Record, proclamation was 
made and the overseers of the fences did present as in- 
sufficient the fence of Hermann op den Graeff, Abraham 
op den GraefF, Isaac Jacobs, Johannes Pottinger, Lenert 
Arets and Reinert Tyson." 

"The 6th day of the 9th month, after proclamation, 
the overseers of the fences being appointed to appear be- 
fore this Court, did present as yet insufficient tlie fence of 
Hermann op den Graeff, Abraham op den GractT, Isaac 
Jacobs and Johannes Pottinger." 

"James de la Plaine, Coroner, brought into this court 
the names of the jury which he summoned the 24tli day 
of 4th month, 1701, viz. : Thomas Williams, foreman ; 
Peter Keurlis, Hermann op den Graeff, Reiner Peters, 
Peter Shoemaker, Reiner T)^son, Peter Brown, John Um- 
stat, Thomas Potts, Reiner Hermans, Dirk Johnson, Her- 
mann Tunes. Their verdict was as followeth ; We, the 
jury, find that through carelessness the cart and the lime 
killed the man ; the wheel wounded his back and head, 
and it killed him." 

1700-1. " The 7th day of the 9th month, Abraham 
op de Graeff and Peter Keurlis were sent for to answer 
the complaints made against their children by Daniel 
Falckner and Johannes Jawert, but the said Abraham 
op de Graeff being not well and Peter Keurlis gone to 
Philadelphia, this matter was left to the next session." 

20th of 11th month, 1701. "The sheriff complains 
igainst Abraham op de Graeff 's son Jacob, for having 
taken a horse out of his custody. The said Jacob an- 
swers that he brought the horse thither again. The 

Court fined him half a crown, besides what his hither 

14 



218 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCIIES. 

is to pay the sheriff according to the l;iw of this corpora- 
tion.'' 

" The sheriff, Jonas Potts, gave Abraham op de GraefF 
the lie for saying that the said sheriff agreed with Mat- 
thew Peters to take for his fees 7s. 6d., which upon ac- 
knowledgment was forgiven and laid by." 

December 28th, 1703. "Abraham op de Graeff did 
mightly abuse the Bailiff in open court, wherefore he 
was brou2;ht out of it to answer for the same at the next 
Court of Record." 

21st of 1st month, 1703-4. " Abraham op de Graeff 
being formerly committed by James de la Plaine, Bailiff, 
for several offences mentioned in the mittimus, and the 
said iVbraham having further, with many injurious words, 
abused the now Bailiff' Arent Klincken in open Court of 
Record, held here at German town, the 28th dav of De- 
cember, 1703, was fined by this present Court the sum 
of two pounds and ten shillings, and lie to remain in the 
Sheriff' 's custody until the said fine and fees be satisfied." 

13th of 4th month, 1704. " The action of Mattheus 
Smith against Abraham op de Graeff' was called and the 
following persons attested as jurymen, viz. : Paul Wolff', 
Tunes Kunders, AVilliam Strepers, Dirk Jansen, Jr., John 
Van de Wilderness, Dirk Jansen, Sr., Walter Simens, 
Henry Tubben, John Smith, Lenert Arets, Hermannus 
Kuster and Cornelius Dewees. The declaration of Mat- 
thew Smith being read, the answer of the defendant was 
that he proffered pay to the plaintiff', but that he would 
not accept of it, and brings for his evidences Edward Jer- 
man and Joseph Coulson, who were both attested and 
said that Abraham op den Graeff' came to the ordinary of 
Germantown, where Matthew Smith was and told to the 
said Smith that he sliould come along with him and re- 
ceive his pay, and that he said Abraham had scales at 



ABKAHAxM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 219 

home ; but Smith did not go. The plaintiff asked the 
said German and Conlston whether they heard the de- 
fendant proffer any kind of payment ; they botli said no. 
The jury's verdict was as folio weth : The jury understand 
that Matthew Smith refused the payment which Abraham 
has offered, the said Matthew is guilty ; but Abraham 
must pay the sum which the arbitrators had agreed upon. 
Paul Wolff, foreman." 

October 3d, 1704. " The action of Abraham op den 
Graeff, against David Sherkes, for slandering him, the 
said Abraham, that no honest man would be in his com- 
pany, was called, and the bond of the said David Sherkes 
and Dirck Keyser, Sr., for the defendant's appearing at 
this Court was read ; the cause pleaded, and as witnesses 
were attested Dirck Keyser, Sr., Dirck Keyser, Jr., 
Arnold Van Vosen and Hermann Dors, whereupon the 
jury brought in their verdict thus : We of the jury find for 
the defendant. The plaintiff desired an appeal, but when 
he was told he must pay the charges of the Court and 
give bond to prosecute he went away and did neither." 

Dirck died about May, 1697, leaving a widow Nilcken or 
Nieltje, but probably no children. Hermann, about Sep- 
tember 29th, 1701, removed to Kent county, in the 
" Territories," now the State of Delaware, and died before 
May 2d, 1704. In a deed made by Abraham in 1685 
there is a reference to his " hausfrau Catharina," and May 
16th, 1704, he and his wife Trintje sold their brick house 
in German town. Soon afterward he removed to Perkio- 
men, and traces of the closing years of his life are very 
meagre. Of the two thousand acres purchased by the 
three brothers from Telner, eight hundred and twenty- 
eight were located in Germantown and sold, and the 
balance, after the deaths of Dirck and Hermann, vested 
in Abraham through the legal principle of survivorship. 



220 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

He had them laid out in the Dutch Township fronting on 
the Perkiomen, where he was living April 6th, 1710, and 
where he died before March, 25th, 1731. On the 27th of 
August, 1709, he gave to his daughter Margaret and her 
husband Thomas Howe, a tailor of Germantown, three 
hundred acres of this land. In consideration of the gift 
Howe "doth hereby promise to maintain the within 
named Abraham op den GraefF if he should want liveli- 
hood at any time during his life, and to attend upon him 
and be dutiful to him." It is to be hoped that this 
covenant was more faithfully kept than sometimes hap- 
pens with such promises when men in their old age drop 
the reins into other hands. His children beside Margaret, 
were Isaac, Jacob, and Anne, wife of Hermann In de 
Hoffen. In their youth he sent Isaac and Jacob to school 
to Pastorius. It is probable that after the Keith difficulty 
he did not renew his association with the Friends, and 
that his remains lie with those of the In de Hoffens 
( Dehaven) in the Mennonite graveyard on the Skippaok 
near Evansburg. His name has been converted into Up- 
degraff, Updegrave and Updegrove, but those who bear 
it are not numerous. 

The fine traits of character displayed by the German 
settlers of Pennsylvania in their fortitude under persecu- 
tion abroad, and their persistent energy in overcoming the 
difficulties they encountered in a new land, among a 
strange people, speaking a different language, have met 
with little recognition. Their peculiarities have attracted 
more attention than their thrifty habits and correct 
morals. The events of their lives, though they might 
often teach a lesson well worthy of our remembrance, have 
been buried in oblivion. And a hard fate, more malicious 
in its mischievousness than the gnomes of their native 
mountains, has, in raanv instances, by awkward and 



ABRAHAM AND DIRCK OP DEN GRAEFF. 221 

grotesque attempts at anglicization, which leave no traces 
of the original, obliterated their very names from the face 



' For example : Bromberg has become Brownback, Bosshardt is 
now Buzzard, and Rieser, a giant, is changed into Razor. 



ZiONITISCHER WE-YRA UCHS EuGEL 

ODER Myrreen Berg. 

GERMANTOWN, 1739 



From the Bulletin of the Library Company of 
Philadelphia, January, 1882. 



I 



ZIONITISCHER WEYRAUCHS HUGEL. 



This book contains a preface written at Ephrata, Pa.^ 
14th of Fourth month, 1739, which with the title-page 
covers fourteen pages ; seven hundred and. ninety-two 
pages of hymns, and fourteen pages of index. It is 
dedicated "To all solitary Turtle-Doves cooing in the 
wilderness as a spiritual harp — playing in the many 
times of divine visitation." There are a number of facts^ 
in the bibliographical history of the Weyrauchs Hiigel, 
any one of which would be enough to make it a remark- 
able publication. It was the first book printed in Ger- 
man type in America. It was the first book from the 
justly celebrated and prolific colonial press of Christopher 
Saur of Germantown. A letter from Germantown dated 
November 16th, 1738, and published in the " Geistliche 
Fama," a European periodical of the Inspired, says : 
" We have here a German book-publishing house estab- 
lished by Saur, and the Seventh-day Baptists have had a 
great hymn book printed of old and new hymns mixed." 
In rather a curious way it led to the establishment of the 
Ephrata press. The 37th verse of the 400th hymn runs 

as follows : — 

Sehet, sehet, sehet, an ! 
Sehet, sehet, an den Mann ! 
Der von Gott erhoehet ist, 
Der ist unser Herr und Christ. 

Which translated literally is — 
Look, look, look, 
Look, look upon the mrin ; 
He is exalted by God ; 
He is our Lord and Christ. 



226 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

The compositor asked Saur wlietlicr lie thought that 
more than one Christ had appeared. Saur inquired of 
liim why he suggested such an idea; when the nian 
pointed out this verse and said it appeared to him that 
by it Conrad Beissel, tlie founder of the Ephrata Cloister, 
meant himself, Saur wrote to Beissel, and asked whether 
tlie suspicion had any foundation ; whereupon Beissel 
replied to him that he was a fool. Such terse and 
uncomplimentary language did not please Saur, who 
soon after issued a pamphlet censuring Beissel, say- 
ing among other things that his name contained the 
number 666 of the beast of the Apocalypse, and 
that lie had received something from all the planets 
— " from Mars his strength, from Venus his influence 
over women, and from Mercury his comedian tricks " 
Beissel became quite angry, and one of the results of the 
widening breach was a new press at Ephrata. The Wey- 
rauchs Hiigel is the largest and most important collection 
of the hymns of the Ephrata Cloister. Many of them 
were written there by Beissel and others, but unfortu- 
nately it is not possible, except in a few instances, to de- 
termine the authorship of particular hymns. Christina 
Hoehn, " a pious and God-fearing woman," who died an 
inmate of the Cloister at an advanced age, wrote those 
upon pages 465 and 466, beginning " Wenn mir das 
Creutz will machen Schmertzeu," and " Ich dringe ein in 
Jesu Liebe."^ Choral books, containing the music to 

' The inmates wliom I have been able to identify under tlieir 
cloister names are : 

Father Friedsam, Conrad Beissril, 

Sister Albina, Margaret Hoecker. 

" Anastasia or Tabea, Thomen. 

" Eiuiike, Philip Hanselraans' wife. 

" Marcella, Mai-ia Christiana Saur. 



ZTONITISCHER WEYRAUCHS HUGEL. 



227 



which these hymns were sung, were beautifully written 
and illuminated with full page decorations of flowers and 
birds by the brethren and sisters. One of them is now 
in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
vania, and another, with different designs, in a private 
library in Philadelphia. Ephrata is believed to be the 
last place in the world whore the middle-age art of illu- 
minating; manuscripts was preserved and practiced. 

A well-known New England collector who has since 
met with a sad fate, succeeded a few years ago in finding 
a copy of the Weyrauchs Hiigel, for which he paid $40- 
Unfortunately, it lacked a title-page. Its owner, hearing 
of a gentleman living in the interior of Montgomery 
County, Pa., who would be more likely than any one else 
to be able to supply the omission, made him a visit and 
offered him $10 for the missing leaf. The gentleman re- 
ferred to, with a tender sympathy for the plight of his 
antiquarian friend, went out to the Snow Hill Institution 
in Franklin County, and luckily found what was needed 
to complete the copy. 



Brothe; 


r Agabus, 




Agonius, 




Amos, 




Ezekiel, 




Elimelech, 




Haggai, 




Jabez. 




Jepliune, 




Jotham, 




Obadiah, 




Obed, 




Onesirau.s, 




Philemon, 




Theodoras, 




Zephaiiiah, 



Stephen Koch. 
Michael Wohlfahrt. 
Jobn Meylin. 
Heini'ich Sangmeister. 

Eckerlin. 

Kroll, 

Peter Miller, 

Eckerlin. 

Eckerlin. 

Funck. 

Ludvvig H5cker. 
Israel Eckerlin. 
Conrad Riesman. 
Thomas Hardie. 
Nagelv. 



228 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKt^. 

As the edition was small and the book was in common 
use for devotional purposes, it has become extremely 
scarce, nearly all of the few known copies being imper- 
fect. For accounts of it see the Deutsche Pionier, vol. 
viii, page 47, and Dr. Seidensticker's paper on "Die 
Deutsch-Amerikanischer Incunabula," in the same 
volume, page 475. 



WILLIAM MOORE 



OF 



MOORE HALL 



From the History of Chester County, page 662. 



WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL 



William Moore was a son of John Moore, collector 
of the port of Philadelphia, and was born in that city on 
the 6th day of May, 1699. In his early youth he was 
sent to England to be educated, and he graduated at the 
University of Oxford in 1719. His wife is said to have 
been a descendant of the Earl of Wemyss, and this 
tradition receives support from the fact that in his will he 
refers to the noble and honorable family from which she 
sprang. His father having become interested in the Pick- 
ering tract in Charlestown township, Chester Co. Pa., in 
1729, gave him a lot of 240 acres on the Pickering 
creek, adjacent to the Schuylkill, on which he had been 
living for some years, and there he passed the remainder 
of his long and eventful life. On it he erected a frame 
house which was later superseded by a stone mansion 
overlooking the river. The latter is still standing and 
has ever since borne the name of Moore Hall. He also 
built a saw mill and the Bull tavern, a famous hostelry in 
the colonial days. He lived in considerable style, and had 
a number of slaves and other servants. In the Weekly 
Mercury for February 28th, 1737-8, he advertises for 
sale "a young man who understands writing and ac- 
counts, and lately kept school." He was an enthusiastic 
churchman, and at different times was a vestryman of St. 
James' Episcopal Church, on the Perkiomen, and of 
Radnor Church, in Delaware County. He was Colonel of 
one of the Chester County militia regiments during the 
time of the troubles with the Indians. As became a 



232 HISTORICAL AKD BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

gentleman of his standing, lie early began to take a part 
in political affairs, and in 1733 was sent to the Assembly, 
being re-elected each succeeding fall until 1740. There 
is a letter to him in the Taylor MSS., which says : 

"A few days agoe a noted minister of the gospel, 
beyond New Garden, and several of his congregation told 
me they were Informed by Isaac Wayne that thee de- 
clines Serving the County as a representative in Assembly 
the ensuing year and has Consented that he shall put thy 
name with his on a Tickett for Sheriff in order to Establish 
liim in that post. This Information flies like the wind, 
and has given a vast number of those who were in thy 
interest a violent shock to hear that a Gent., on whom 
they so much relied should desert their service at a time 
when ye Publick affairs seem to challenge the Strictest 
attendance, for to help a p'son of so feeble a charracter as 
Wayne into an office which so little Concerns the true In- 
terest of an English Subject as that of Sheriff." This 
letter probably marks the beginning of an antagonism be- 
tween Wayne, the father of the Revolutionary general, 
iind Moore, whicli subsequently led to important results. 
It also lends some strength to the belief that during the 
time of his legislative service Moore belonged to the 
Quaker and anti-proprietary party. An anonymous piece 
of satire concerning him, purporting to be a confession 
published in 1757, says : 

" I once made myself believe I could act the Patriot 
and accordingly made Interest to be chosen for a Repre- 
sentative, then I opposed loudly all Proprietary Innova- 
tions and was warm for the Liberty of my Country but 
getting nothing but the Honour of serving my Country I 
lound that a Post of Profit might with my skill be more 
itdvantageous." 

Jn 1741 he was appointed by the Governor a justice ol" 



WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 233^ 

the peace and judge of the County Court. For about 
forty years thereafter he was president judge of that 
court. Whatever may have been his previous political 
creed, it is certain that henceforth he was one of the most 
decided and influential friends of the proprietaries in the 
province. In the disputes between the Governor and 
the Assembly he took an active part, and on the 23d 
of November 1755, he wrote to the Assembly that two 
thousand men were coming down to Philadelphia from 
Chester county to compel them to pass a militia law, a> 
measure to which the Quaker majority were opposed. 
This was the first step in a struggle, of which he was the^ 
central figure, that shook the whole province, and finally 
required the intervention of the throne to decide.^ During 
the two succeeding years a great many petitions were pre- 
sented to the Assembly by citizens of Chester county 
charging him with tyranny, injustice, and even extortion,. 
in the performance of the duties of his magisterial oflBce,, 
and asking for his removal. The names that were signed 
to these petitions are too numerous to be repeated 
here, but among them were those of some of the best 
people in the county. It is manifest to the impartial 
reader that while the haughty and aristocratic bearing 
of Moore doubtless gave ofience, and may have at 
times led to arbitrary decisions, political rivalry had 
much to do with the complaints. In a broadside pub- 
lished in reply, Moore explains the circumstances of 
each case in detail, and says that the petitions were 
procured by Isaac Wayne, with whom he had had a 
quarrel, through spite and rancor, by " riding night and 
day among ignorant and weak Persons using many Per- 
suasions and Promises." The Assembly, after a hearing 

^ For a detailed account of this contest see Annals of Phoenix- 
Tille, p. 45. 

15 



234 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of the petitioners, whicli was many times adjourned in 
order to give him an opportunity to be present, but 
whicli he declined to attend, on the ground that they had 
no authority to make the investigation, determined that 
he had been guilty of extortion, and many other fraudu- 
lent, wicked, and corrupt practices and asked for his re- 
moval from office. Soon afterwards, on the 19th of 
October, 1757, Moore wrote a paper, printed in Frank- 
lin's Gazette and some other newspapers, in which he 
fiercely reviewed the action of the Assembly, calling it 
"virulent and scandalous," and a "continued string of 
the severest calumny and most rancorous epithets conceived 
in all the terms of malice and party rage," and based 
upon petitions procured by a member and tool of the 
Assembly at a tavern when the signers were incapable of 
knowing what they did. Immediately after the meeting 
of the new Assembly, which was composed mainly of 
the same persons as the preceding, a warrant was issued 
to the sergeant at arms for the arrest of Moore. He was 
seized at his home at Moore Hall by two armed men one 
Friday evening, early in January, 1758, hurried away to 
Philadelphia and there confined in jail. A warrant was 
also issued for the arrest of Dr. William Smith, provost 
of the University of Pennsylvania who it was believed 
had been concerned in the preparation of the libelous ad- 
dress. They were both brought before the Assembly 
where they refused to make a defence, though Moore ad- 
mitted that he had written the paper and refused to 
retract its statements. It was ordered that he should be 
confined until he should make a recantation, and that the 
address should be burned by the hangman. They were 
both given into the custody of the sheriff", with directions 
that they should not be discharged upon any writ of 
habeas corpus. They were, however, released in this way, 



WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 235 

after the adjournment of the Assembly, in about three 
months. In August the Governor, after a series of 
quarrels with the Assembly about it, examined a number 
of witnesses, and went through the form of a trial, as a 
result of which he announced, that Moore had purged 
himself of every one of the original charges, and that he 
bad never known a more full and clear defence. Smith 
went to England to prosecute an appeal to the crown and 
■on February 13th, 1760, there was signified formally to 
the Assembly " His Majesty's high displeasure" at their 
unwarrantable behavior in assuming power, that did not 
belong to them, and invading the royal prerogative and 
the liberties of the people. The time had not yet come 
when this authority could be resisted, and Moore and his 
friends came off victorious. As in most political contests, 
there was much unnecessary heat and some truth on both 
sides. There is plenty of contemporary evidence to show 
that Moore, admirable as was the part he played in those 
old days, and loath as I would be to take even one 
horse-tooth button set in brass from the dimity coat he 
wore,^ was haughty in temper, and none too gentle in the 
exercise of power. " Unless they put me to the necessity 
of bringing ejectments, and in that case they are to expect 
no favor," he wrote in 1769 to Benjamin Jacobs about 
some people who had made improvements on some of his 

' " Run away from William Moore of Moore Hall, in Chester 
Oounty, a likely young Negro Man, named Jack, speaks but indif- 
ferent English, and had on when he went away a new Ozenburg 
Shirt, a pair of striped homespun Breeches, a striped ticking 
Wastecoat, an old Dimity Coat of his master's, with buttons of 
Horse-teeth set in Brass and Cloth sleeves, a Felt Hat, almost new. 
Whoever secures the said Negro and will bring him to his Master 
or to John Moore, Esq., in Philadelphia, shall receive Twenty- 
Shillings Reward and reasonable charges. William Mooke." 

Fenna. Oazeite, Aug. 10, 1730. 



236 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

lands. "This is a season," he adds, " when most or all 
farmers have their barns or stock yards filled with the 
produce of their plantations." 

John Ross, the celebrated Philadelphia lawyer, noted 
in his private docket, in November, 1765, that a case 
in which he represented some young Quakers, accused of a 
criminal charge, had been adjourned three times by Moore 
without cause, though seventeen witnesses were present ; 
" the first instance of that kind of oppression that ever 
happened in this province," and that is was supposed to- 
have occurred, " from his great love to Quakers." At the 
time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was an 
old man of about seventy-six years, and much troubled 
with the gout. He was, however, keenly alive to the im- 
portance of the struggle, and his sympathies, like those of 
the greater number of men who had secured wealth, 
position and reputation under the old order of things, 
were entirely on the side of the crown. The rebels he 
regarded as a rude rabble. Jacob Smith, a sort of 
political eavesdropper, made an affidavit that he heard 
Moore say, at Moore Hall, on the 7th of May, 1775, that 
the people of Boston were a " vile set of rebels," and that 
" he was determined to commit every man to prison who 
would associate or muster." There was much excitement 
abroad, and it was the way of the new men who were 
coming into power to compel by force those who were 
suspected of Toryism to recant. On June 6th, the 
committee of Chester county, of which Anthony Wayne 
was chairman, visited Moore Hall for this purpose. Broken 
in strength and ill in health, the Judge was brought to bay, 
confronted with a power which Great Britain, in eight 
years of war, was unable to subdue. The spirit, how- 
ever, with whicli two decades earlier he had defied the 
Assembly and suffered imprisonment was still undaunted, 



WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 237 

and the paper he signed said, " I also further declare that 
I have of late encouraged and will continue to encourage 
learning the military art, apprehending the tiroe is not 
far distant when there may be occasion for it." The 
latent sarcat^^m was entirely unnoticed and the committee 
unanimously resolved that a perfectly satisfactory answer 
had been given. On another occasion a party from the 
American army, among whom was Isaac Anderson, after- 
wards a member of Congress from that district, which was 
sent to deprive the Tories of arms, went to Moore Hall, 
and found its haughty occupant confined to his easy 
■chair. Among other things they discovered a beautifully 
wrought sword, whose handle was inlaid with gold and 
silver, which had probably been an heirloom. They were 
about to carry it off, when the Judge asked permission to 
see it once more. It had scarcely been given to him be- 
fore, with his foot on the floor, he snapped the blade from 
the handle. Then, clinching tightly the hilt, he threw to 
them the useless blade, and with a gesture of contempt, 
and eyes gleaming, cried, " There : Take that if you are 
anxious to fight ; but you have no business to steal my 
plate." While the array was at Valley Forge, Col. 
Clement Biddle and others were quartered at Moore 
Hall and a committee of Congress met there in the early 
part of 1778. Moore died on the 30th of May, 1783. 
He and his old antagonists the Waynes, rest together in 
peace in the graveyard at Radnor, Moore lies directly in 
front of the door, and all the worshippers at that ancient 
and celebrated church, as they enter, pass over the re- 
mains of one who during his life was probably the most 
conspicuous and heroic figure in the county of Chester. 
Among his descendants are the Cadwaladers and Rawles 



238 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 

of Philadelphia, the Qoldsboroughs and Duponts of Dela- 
ware, and some of the English and German nobility.^ 

' A MS. volume of surveys in the library of the Historical 
Society of Penna., made in 1733 and 1734, contains the following 
doggerel. The authorship is unknown. 

" Old moor of moor Hall 

Did with nothing at all 
Distroy a most Terrible Dragon 

which notable feat 

has Caused a whole State 
In songs for to bluster & brag on. 

But now he's outdone 

By a stripling his son 
Who is made up of nothing but Wonder 

for moor of moor hall 

whos Deeds were not small 
to his son must in Justice Knock under. 

The wonderous youth 

to tell you the truth 
Does fight in a way thats not common 

fFor though he hates Steel 

as men hate the De'il 
Or a Debtor the sight of a Sumon, 

Yet once on a Day 

there stood in his way 
a Creature as big as a Tyger 

he had two fierce Eyes 

off a very large size 
And seemed to have abundance of vigour. 

this youth of moor Hall 

was not Daunted at all 
at a Creature that looked so frightfuU 

He made not a word 

but out with his bword 
and at him both furious and spitefull. 



WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL. 239 

the fight lasted long 

for the monster was strong 
well Known by the name of Poor Torry 

but maugre his Strength 

the youth was at length 
Victorious as I heard the Story. 

But this is a feat 

Scarce worth to relate 
A meer silly thing and a triffle 

to what he has done 

with his round barrelled gun 
and an excelent piece called a Riffle. 

this Hero he saw 

Just after a thaw 
a flock of large Ducks on the water 

and also Espied 

A Deer tother side 
a Deer you scarce ere Saw a flatter, 

he looked down his gun 

which quickly was done 
and loaded with Ball and Small Shot sir 

at the Ducks he let fly 

and caused some to die 
ffor twelve out of thirteen he got sir. 

And what will you puzzel 

He mounted the muzzel 
Ere the Ball from the Barrel got clear, Sir 

And aimed so right 

That the Ball in its flight 
Passd quite thro the heart of the Deer, Sir. 



SAMUEL RICHARDSON. 

A Councilor, Judge and Legislator of 

THE olden time. 



From Lippineott's Magazine for April, 1874. 



SAMUEL RICHARDSON. 
A Councilor, Judge and Legislator of the Olden Time. 



On the 3d of July, 1686, not quite four years after the 
arrival of Penn, a bricklayer from the island of Jamaica, 
named Samuel Richardson, bought five thousand eight 
hundred and eighty acres of land in Pennsylvania, and 
two large lots on the north side of High street (now 
Market) in the city of Philadelphia, for three hundred 
and forty pounds. He had probably been but a short 
time a resident of Jamaica, since the certificate he 
brought with him from the Friends' meeting at Spanish 
Town, to the effect " y' he and his wife hath walked 
amongst us as becomes Truth," was only given " after 
consideration thereoff and Enquiry made." Of his pre- 
vious life we know nothing, unless it be the following in- 
cident narrated in Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers : 
In the year 1670 a squad of soldiers arrested George 
Whitehead, John Scott and Samuel Richardson at a 
meeting of Friends at the Peel in London, and after de- 
taining them about three hours in a guard-room, took 
them before two justices, and charged Richardson with 
having laid violent hands upon one of their muskets. 
"This was utterly false, and denied by him, for he was 
standing, peaceably as he said, with his Hands in his 
Pockets." One of the justices asked him, " Will you 
promise to come no more at meeting?" 8. H. : " I can 
promise no such thing." Justice: "Will you pay your 
5s. ?" Richardson : "I do not know that I owe thee 
6s." A fine of that amount was nevertheless imposed. 



244 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

The sturdy independence and passive combativenees 
manifested upon this occasion formed, as we shall here- 
after see, one of the most prominent characteristics of the 
emigrant from Jamaica ; and there are some other cir- 
cumstances which support the conclusion that he was the 
person thus commemorated. Driven, as we may safely 
suppose, from England to the West Indies, and thence to 
Pennsylvania, by the persecution which followed his sect, 
he had now experienced the hardest buffetings of adverse 
fortune, and soon began to bask in the sunshine of a quiet 
but secure prosperity. Surrounded by men of his own 
creed, he throve greatly, and rapidly passed into the suc- 
cessive stages of a merchant and a gentleman. In Jan- 
uary, 1689-90, he bought from Penn another lot on High 
street for the purpose of erecting quays and wharves, and 
he now owned all the ground on the north side of that 
street between Second street and the Delaware River. 

In January, 1688, William Bradford, the celebrated 
pioneer printer, issued proposals for the publication of a 
large *' house Bible " by subscription. It was an under- 
taking of momentous magnitude. No similar attempt 
had yet been made in America; and in order that the 
cautious burghers of the new city should have no. solici- 
tude concerning the unusually large advances required, he 
gives notice that " Samuell Richardson and Samuell Car- 
penter of Philadelphia are appointed to take care and be 
assistant in the laying out of the Subscription Money, 
and to see that it be imployed to the use intended." A 
single copy of this circular, found in the binding of an 
old book, has been preserved. 

In 1688, Richardson was elected a member of the Pro- 
vincial Council, a body which, with the governor or his 
deputy, then possessed the executive authority, and which, 
in its intercourse with the Assembly, was always exces- 



A LEGISLATOE OF THE OLDEN TIME. 245 

sively dictatorial and often dispose to encroach. Quar- 
rels between these two branches of the government were 
frequent and bitter, and doubtless indicated the gradual 
growth of two parties differing in views and interests, 
one of which favored the Proprietary and the other the 
people. Soon after taking his seat he became embroiled 
in a controversy that loses none of its interest from the 
quaint and plain language in which it is recorded, and 
which may have had its origin in the fact that he was 
then a justice of the peace and judge of the county court, 
a position he certainly held a few years later.^ The 
Council had ordered a case depending in that court to be 
withdrawn, with the intention of hearing and determin- 
ing it themselves, and Richardson endeavored in vain to. 
have this action rescinded. At the meeting of the 25th 
of December, 1688, a debate arose concerning these pro- 
ceedings, and the deputy governor, John Blackwell, called 
attention to some remarks previously made by Richard- 
son which reflected upon the resolution of the Council^ 
telling him that it was unbecoming and ought not to be 
permitted, and " Reproveing him as haveing taken toa 
great liberty to Carry it vnbeseemingly and very pro- 
vokeinly." He especially resented " ye said Sam" Rich- 
ardson's ffbrmer declareing at several times y' he did not 
owne ye Gover"" to be Gover^" Richardson replied with 
some warmth that " he would Stand by it and make it- 
good — that W™' Penn could not make a Cover';" and 
this opinion, despite the almost unanimous dissent of the 
members present, he maintained with determination, until 
at length the governor moved that he be ordered to with- 
draw. " I will not withdraw. I was not brought hither 
by thee, and I will not goe out by thy order. I was sent 

^ He was appointed a Justice 12th of 11th mo. 1688. 



246 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

by ye people, and thou hast no power to put me out," was 
the defiant answer. The governor then said that he could 
not suffer Penn's authority to be so questioned and him- 
self so contemned, and, being justified by the concurrence 
of all the Council except Arthur Cook, who " would be 
vnderstood to think and speak modestly," he succeeded 
in having his motion adopted. Thereupon Richardson 
" went ffbrth, declaring he Cared not whether ever he sat 
there more againe." After his departure it was resolved 
that his words and carriage had been " vnworthy and vn- 
becoraing ;" that he ought to acknowledge his offence, 
and promise more respect and heed for the future, before 
being again permitted to act with them ; and that he be 
called inside and admonished ; " but he was gon away." 

A few weeks after this occurrence the governor in- 
formed the Council that he had made preparations to issue 
a writ for the election of members in the places of Rich- 
ardson and John Eckley, and also presented a paper 
charging Thomas Lloyd — who had recently been chosen 
one of their number, and who, as keeper of the Great 
Seal, had refused to let it be used in some project then in 
contemplation — with various crimes, misdemeanors and 
offences. At this meeting Joseph Growden, a member 
who had been absent before, moved that Richardson be 
admitted to his seat, but was informed by the governor 
that he had been excluded because of his misbehavior. On 
the 3d of February, 1689, during the proceedings, Rich- 
ardson entered the Council-room and sat down at the 
table. In reply to a question, he stated that he had 
come to discharge his duty as a member. This bold 
movement was extremely embarrassing to his opponents, 
and for a time they displayed hesitation and uncertainty. 
Argument and indignation weie alike futile, since, unac- 
companied by force, they were insufficient to effect his re- 



A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 247 

moval ; but the happy thought finally occurred to the 
governor to adjourn the Council until the afternoon, and 
station an officer at the door to prevent another intrusion. 
This plan was adopted and successfully carried into exe- 
cution. Upon reassembling, Growden contended that the 
Council had no right to exclude a member who had been 
duly chosen by the people ; and this led to an earnest 
and extended debate, in which, the secretary says, " many 
intemperate Speeches and passages happen'd, ffitt to be 
had in oblivion." Ere a week had elapsed the governor 
presented a charge against Growden, but the fact that 
three others, though somewhat hesitatingly, raised their 
voices in favor of admitting all the members to their seats, 
seemed to indicate that his strength was waning. 

The election under the new writ was held on the 8th 
of February, 1689, and the people of the county showed 
the drift of their sympathies by re-electing Richardson. 
The Assembly also interfered in the controversy, and sent 
a delegation to the governor to complain that they were 
abused through the exclusion of some of the members of 
Council. They were rather bluntly informed that the 
proceedings of the Council did not concern them. In 
the midst of the conversation upon "this and kindred 
topics, Lloyd, Eckley and Richardson entered the cham- 
ber and said they had come to pay their respects to the 
governor and perform their duties. A resort to the tac- 
tics which had been found available on the previous occa- 
sion became necessary, and the meeting was declared ad- 
journed ; *' upon which several of ye members of ye 
Council departed. But divers remayned, and a great deel 
of confused noyse and clamor was expressed at and with- 
out the doore of ye Gover'^'s roome, where ye Councill 
had sate, w"^ occasioned persons (passing by in the streets) 
to stand still to heare ; which ye Gover' observing desired 



248 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ye sayd Tho. Lloyd would forbear such Lowd talking, tell- 
ing bim be must not suffer sucb doings, but would take 
a course to suppresse it and sbutt ye Doore." Tbe crisis 
bad now approached, and soon afterward Penn recalled 
Blackwell, authorized the Council to choose a president 
and act as his deputy themselves, and poured oil upon the 
troubled waters in this wise : " Salute me to ye people in 
Gen". Pray send for J. Siracock, A. Cook, John Eckley 
and Sam" Carpenter, and Lett them dispose T. L., d Sa. 
Richardson to that Complying temper that may tend to 
thatloveing & serious accord y' become such a Goverm*."^ 

After the departure of Blackwell the Council elected 
Lloyd their president. Richardson resumed his place for 
the remainder of his term, and in 1695 was returned for 
a further period of two years. During this time Colonel 
Fletcher made a demand upon the authorities of Pennsyl- 
vania for her quota of men to defend the more northern 
provinces against tbe Indians and the French, and Rich- 
ardson was one of a committee of twelve, two from each 
county, appointed to reply to this requisition. They 
reported in favor of raising five hundred pounds, upon the 
understanding that it " should not be dipt in blood," but 
be used to " feed the hungrie & cloath the naked." 

He was a judge of tbe county court and justice of the 
peace in 1688 and 1704, and for the greater part — prob- 
ably the whole — of the intervening period. In the his- 
toric contest with George Keith, the leader of a schism 
which cause a wide breach among those early Friends in 
Pennsylvania, be bore a conspicuous part. A crew of 
river- pirates, headed by a man named Babbit, stole a sloop 
from a wharf in Philadelphia and committed a number of 

' Joseph Growden, Samuel Carpenter and four otliers wrote to 
Penn, 9th of 2d mo., 1G99, complaining of Geo. Blackwell that " He 
has excluded Sam. Pdch'dson an able & honest man.'' 



A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TLME, 241^ 

depreciations ou the Delaware. Three of the inagistrates, 
all of whom were Quakers, issued a warrant for their ar- 
rest, and Peter Boss, with some others to assist, went out 
in a boat and effected their capture. Although, as the 
chronicler informs us. Boss and his party had " neither 
gun, aword or spear," it is fair to presume they did not 
succeed without the use of some force. This gave Keith 
an opportunity of which he was no by means loath to 
take advantage, and he soon afterward published a circu- 
lar entitled an " Appeal," wherein he twitted his quon- 
dam associates with their inconsistency in acting as 
magistrates and encouraging fighting and warfare. Five 
of the justices, one of whom was Richardson, ordered the 
arrest of the printers, William Bradford and John Mc- 
Comb, and the authors, Keith and Thomas Budd, and 
the latter were tried, convicted and fined five pounds each.^ 
These proceedings being bruited abroad and " making a 
great noise," the six justices, including the five above re- 
ferred to and Anthony Morris, published a manifesto giv- 
ing the reason for their action, Keith, they Kay, had 
publicly reviled Thomas Lloyd, the president of the Coun- 
cil, by calling him an impudent man and saying his name 
" would stink," and had dared to stigmatize the members 

' "By a Warrant signed by Sam. Richardson & Rob. Ewer, Jus- 
tices, the Sheriff and Constable entered the Shop of William 
Bradford & took all the above written Papers they could find call'd 
An Appeal, and carried the said W. Bradford before the said 
Justices, and also sent for John McComb, who (as they were 
informed) had disposed of two of said Papers and they not giving 
an Account where they had them were both committed to Prison. 
Also they sent Robert Ewer and the"^said officer to search the said 
W. Bradford's House again for more Papers &c. but found none^ 
yet took away a Parcell of Letters, being his utensils, which were 
worth about ten pounds." Fosiscript to /Second Edition of Appeal^ 
1692. 

16 



250 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of Council and the justices as impudent rascals. These 
things they had patiently endured, as well as his gross 
revilings of their religious society, but in his recent com- 
ments upon the arrest of Babbit he not only encouraged 
sedition and breach of the peace, but aimed a blow at the 
Proprietary government, since if Quakers could not act 
injudicial capacities the bench must remain vacant. Buch 
conduct required their intervention, as well to check him 
as to discourage others. The Friends' yearly meeting, 
held at Burlington, on the 7th of July, 1692, disowned 
Keith, and their testimony against him Richardson and 
many others signed, 

Robert Quarry, judge of the court of admiralty, received 
his appointment from the Crown. He seems to have been 
personally objectionable, and his authority, being beyond 
the control of the Proprietary, was not submitted to even 
at that early day without evidences of discontent and some 
opposition. An affair occurring in the year 1698 led to 
a conflict of jurisdiction between him and the provincial 
judges, in which he obtained an eas}^ triumph ; but his 
success appears only to have been satisfactory when it 
had culminated in their personal humiliation. John 
Adams imported a quantity of goods, which, for want of 
a certificate, were seized and given into the custody of 
the marshal of the admiralty court, and altoough he 
afterward complied with all the necessary legal forms, 
Quarry refused to redeliver them. The governor would 
not interfere, but Anthony Morris, one of the judges of 
the county court, issued a writ of replevin, in obedience 
to which the sheriff put Adams in possession of his prop- 
erty. Thereupon, Quarry wrote to England complaining 
of what he considered to be an infringement by the Pro- 
prietary government upon his jurisdiction. On the 27th 
of July, 1693, Morris, Richardson and James Fox pre- 



A LKGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 251 

sented to the governor and Council a written vindication 
of the action of the county court, saying it was their 
duty to grant the replevin upon the plaintiff giving bond, 
as he had done, and adding that they had good grounds 
for believing the sheriff to be as proper a person to secure 
the property " to be forthconaing in Specie, as by the re- 
plevin he is Comaiided, as that they should remain in 
the hands of Robert Webb, who is no Proper officer, as 
wee Know of, to Keep the Same." More than a year 
afterward, Penn, who had recently arrived in the Pro- 
vince on his second visit, called the attention of the 
Council to the subject, and to the great resentment felt 
by the superior powers in England at the support said to 
be given in Pennsylvania to piracy and illegal trade. 
The next day Morris surrendered the bond and the inven- 
tor}' of the goods, and resigned his commission. To his 
statement that he had for many years served as a justice 
to his own great loss and detriment, and that in granting 
the writ he had done what he believed to be risht, Penn 
replied that his signing the replevin was a " verie inde- 
liberate, rash and unwarrantable act." His cup of humilia- 
tion had not yet, however, been drained. Quarry required 
his attendance again before the Council, and said the 
goods had been forcibly taken from the marshal, and 
"what came of y™ the S*^ Anthonie best knew ;" that he 
could not plead ignorance, " having been so long a Jus- 
tice y' hee became verie insolent ;" and that the security 
having refused payment, and it being unreasonable to bur- 
den the king with the costs of a suit, he demanded that the 
" S*^ Anthonie" should be compelled to refund their value. 
Morris could only reply " y' it lookt very hard y' any jus- 
tice should suffer for an error in judgment ; and further 
added that if it were to do again, he wold not do it." 
David Lloyd, the attorney in the case, when arguing 



252 HISTORICAL a^:d biographical sketches. 

had been shown the letters-patent from the king to the 
marshal, with the broad seal of the high court of ad- 
miralty attached. He said, " What is this ? Do you 
think to scare us w' a great box and a little Babie ? 'Tis 
true, fine pictures please children, but wee are not to be 
frightened at such a rate." For the use of these words 
he was expelled from his seat in the Council, and for per- 
mitting them to be uttered without rebuke the three 
judges, Morris, Richardson and Pox, were summoned to 
the presence of the governor and reprimanded. Edward 
Shipper], being absent in New England, escaped the latter 
punishment. 

Richardson was elected a member of the Assembly for 
the years 1691,'92,'93;94,'96, "97, '98, 1700, '01, '02, '03, 
'06, '07, '09. He probably found the leaders of that body 
more congenial associates than had been the members of 
the Council, and, from the fact that he was sent with very 
unusual frequency to confer with the different governors in 
regard to disputed legislation, it may be presumed that he 
was a fair representative of the views entertained by the 
majority. Though doubtless identified in opinion with 
David Lloyd, he does not appear to have been so obnox- 
ious to the Proprietary party as many of his colleagues, 
since James Logan, writing to Penn in 1704, regrets his 
absence that year, and on another occasion says that the 
delegation from Philadelphia county, consisting of David 
Lloyd, Joseph Wilcox, Griffith Jones, Joshua Carpenter, 
Francis Rawle, John Roberts, Robert Jones and Samuel 
Richardson, were " all bad but the last." 

On the 20th of October, 1703, a dispute arose concern- 
ing the power of the Assembly over its own adjournment 
— a question long and warmly debated before — which 
illustrates in a rather amusing way the futile attempts 
frequently made by the governors and their Council to ex- 



A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 253 

ercise control. A messenger having demanded the at- 
tendance of the whole House of Representatives forthwith 
to consult about adjournment, they, being engaged in 
closing the business of the session, sent Joseph Growden, 
Isaac Norris, Joseph Wilcox, Nicholas Wain and Samuel 
Richardson to inform the Council that they had concluded 
to adjourn until the first day of the next Third month. The 
president of the council objected to the time, and denied 
their right to determine it, and an argument having 
ensued without convincing either party, the delegation 
withdrew. The Council then unanimously resolved to 
prorogue the Assembly immediately, and to two inerabers 
of the latter body, who came a few hours afterward with 
the information of its adjournment to the day fixed, the 
president stated " that ye Council had Prorogued ye As- 
sembly to ye said first day of ye said Third month, and 
desired ye said members to acquaint ye house of ye 
same." The order is solemnly recorded in the minutes as 
follows : " Accordingly ye Assembly is hereby prorogued." 
To prorogue them until the day to which they themselves 
had already adjourned was certainly an ingenious method 
of insuring their compliance. 

On the 10th of December, 1706, the Assemby sent 
Richardson and Joshua Hoopes on a message to the 
governor, who, upon their return, reported that his secre- 
tary, James Logan, had affronted them, asking one of 
them " whether he was not ashamed to look, the said 
James Logan, in the face." The wrath of the Assembly 
kindled immediately. They directed Logan to be placed 
in custody, that he might answer at the bar of the House, 
and sent word to the governor that since he had promised 
them free access to his person, his own honor was in- 
volved ; that they resented the abuse as a breach of privi- 
lege ; and that they expected full satisfaction and the pre- 



254 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH F:S. 

ventioii of similar indignities for the future. The governor 
sent for Logan, who explained that " all that past was a 
jocular expression or two to S. Richardson, who used 
always to take a great freedom that way himself, <k that 
he believed he never resented it as an affront;" and 
Richardson, being summoned, declared that he was not at 
all offended. 

For many years after his arrival in Pennsylvania, 
Richardson lived upon a plantation of five hundred acres 
near Germantown, and probably superintended the culti- 
vation of such portions of it as were cleared. There he 
had horses, cattle and sheep. The Friends' records tell 
us that several grandchildren were born in his house, and 
from the account book of Francis Daniel Pastorius we 
learn that when they grew older they were sent to school 
at the moderate rate of fourpence per week. On the 
19th of April, 1703, however, EUinor, his wife, died, and 
some time afterward, probably in the early part of the 
year 1705, he removed to the city.^ He married again, 
and lived in a house somewhere near the intersectioti of 
Third and Chestnut streets, which contained a front room 
and kitchen on the first floor, two chambers on the second 
floor, and a garret. 

In the same year he was unanimously elected one of 
the aldermen of the city, and this position he held there- 
after until his death. In December of that year he, 
Griffith Jones and John Jones, by order of the Town 
Council, bought a set of brass weights for the sum of 

' The Abington monthly meeting records for 23d of 12th xao.j 
1701, say : " Samuel Richardson having desired that ffriends .should 
keep a Meeting of Worship at his house, and this meeting having 
answered his request have ordered also that friends do meet at his 
house on ye s** sixth day in every month, considering ye weakness 
of his wife." 



A LEGISLATOR OF THE OLDEN TIME. 255 

twelve pounds twelve shillings ; and the poverty of the 
new city may be inferred from the fact that they gave 
their individual notes, and took in exchange an obligation 
of the corporation, which, though often presented for 
settlement, was not finally disposed of until five years 
afterwards. In May, 1710, the Town Council determined 
to build a new market-house for the use of the butchers, 
and they raised the necessary funds by individual sub- 
scriptions of money and goods. Richardson was among 
the fourteen heaviest subscribers at five pounds each, 
and after its completion in August, 1713, was appointed 
one of the clerks of the market to collect the rents, etc., on 
a commission of ten per cent. The first moneys received 
were applied to the payment of an old indebtedness to 
Edward Shippen for funds used " in Treating <Air present 
Governor at his ffirst arrival." The meeting of the Town 
Council on the 1st of October, 1717, was the last he 
attended. 

He died June 10th, 1719, at an advanced age, and left 
a large estate. Like many others of the early Friends, 
he was a slaveholder, and among the rest of his property 
were the following negroes : viz., Angola, Jack, Jack's 
wife, and Diana. His wardrobe consisted of a new coat 
with plate buttons, cloth coat and breeches, loose cloth 
coat and druccsfet waistcoat, old cloak, old laro-e coat and 
"Round robin," two fustian frocks and breeches, two 
flannel waistcoats, three pair of old stockings, two hats, 
linen shirts, leather waistcoat, and breeches, six neck- 
cloths, three handkerchiefs, one pair of new and two pair 
of old shoes. 

He liad four children. Joseph, the only son, married 
in 169G, Elizabeth, daughter of John Bevan,^ and from 

' John Bevan's wife was Barbara Aubrey, aunt of the William 



256 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

about the year 1713 lived at Olethgo on the Perkiomen 
creek, in Providence township, Philadelphia (now Mont- 
gomery) county. This marriage was preceded by a care- 
fully drawn settlement, in which the father of the groom 
entailed upon him the plantation of five hundred acres 
near Germantown, and the father of the bride gave her a 
marriage portion of two hundred pounds. Of the three 
daughters, Mary, the eldest, married William Hudson, 
one of the wealthiest of the pioneer merchants of Philadel- 
phia, mayor of the city in 1725, and a relative of Henry 
Hudson, the navigator ; Ann married Edward Lane of 
Providence township, Philadelphia county, and after his 
death Edmund Cartledge of Conestoga in Lancaster 
county ; and Elizabeth married Abraham Bickley, also a 
wealthy merchant of Philadelphia. Among their descend- 
ants are many of the most noted families of the eastern 
counties of Pennsylvania. 

Aubrey who married Letitia Penn, and a descendant of Sir Reginald 
Aubrey, one of the Norman conquerors of Wales. 



Captain Joseph Richardson. 



From the Penn Monthly, February, 1876. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH RICHARDSON. 



On the main road leading from Phoenixville, in Chester 
county to Norristown, in Montgomery county Penn- 
sylvania, about two miles from the Valley Forge and 
within a few yards of a hamlet called the Green Tree, 
may be seen an unpretendiug two- story stone dwelling 
of some note. It would not be likely to attract the 
attention of the traveler of to-day ; but a hundred years 
ago, wayfarers who used the road stopped a moment to 
examine it, and perhaps envied the wealth of those who 
could afford to live in a mansion so spacious and imposing. 
Within sight the beautiful and romantic, though treacher- 
ous Perkiomen, flows into the Schuylkill, and the rich 
tract of land in the angle of the two i^treams, upon a part 
of which this house stands, hore in earliest times, the 
perhaps Indian name of Olethgo. Ten or fifteen years 
before the Revolutionary war it belonged to Joseph Rich- 
ardson, a man whose remarkable career, clouded some- 
what by the obscurity which has gathered around it 
during the lapse of time, still lingers in the traditions 
told by the grandames of the neighborhood to wondering 
children, and in such contemporaneous documents as 
chance or antiquarian tastes have preserved. The great- 
grandson of Samuel Richardson, one of the earliest colonists 
most influential in shaping the destiny of the province, 
and of John Bevan, a noted preacher of the Society of 
Friends, who had abandoned wealth and position in Wales, 
to accompany in the cause of truth his "esteemed friend 



260 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

William Peiiu ; "^ the son of a prominent Quaker, and 
closely related to the Hudsons, Emlens, Morrises, Rawles, 
and others of the leading families of that sect in Philadel- 
phia, there were few who could claim a more honorable 
or more virtuous ancestry. He inherited a remarkable 
physique from his father, of whom it is told that he could 
write his name upon the wall with a piece of chalk while 
a fifty-six pound weight hung upon his little finger, and 
bright blue eyes, looking forth from beneath brown locks, 
added adornment to a comely form. Six feet two inches 
in height and compactly made, he possessed immense 
muscular strength, and was capable of great endurance.'' 
Tradition says that once an athlete, who dwelt in a distant 
part of the country to which his reputation for prowess 
and vigor had found its way, made a long journey in order 
to challenge him to a wrestle. Richardson examined the 
presumptuous stranger for a few moments and then in- 
quired along which crack in the board floor he would be 
best pleased to lie. The selection had scarcely been made 
ere the discomfited wrestler was stretched like a child 
in the place he had chosen. Being the oldest son, he in- 
herited the paternal estate ; and having married Mary 
Massey, the daughter of one of the Quaker families of the 
Chester valley, he commenced life under the most favor- 
able auspices, and for many years all things appeared to 
be well with him. His tastes were those of a country 
gentleman of his time. Sopus, Scipio, Fearnought and 
other imported horses of pure blood were to be found in 
his stables.^ An Island in the Schuylkill containing 24 
acres of land, a short distance above the present Perki- 

' Collection of Memorials, page 79. 
* Penna, Packet, Aug. 23d, 1773. 
' Penna. Gazette. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH RICHAEDSON. 261 

omen Junction, and marked upon the maps of that epoch 
as " Richardson's Island," afforded fine opportunities for 
catching the fish which then abounded in the river. The 
post-rider, in his weekly trip from Philadelphia to Ephrata 
and Swatara, brought the Pennsylvania Gazette, the news- 
paper of the day, to his home. His mien and carriage 
were those of a man conscious of more than ordinary 
power, though his manner had received tone and polish 
from occasional contact with life in the city, and from 
association with the intellectual people of the province. 
Physical and mental characteristics such as he possessed 
always impress the masses, and as might be anticipated 
he was popular. In 1755, after the defeat of Gen. Brad- 
dock at Fort DuQuesne, the French were so emboldened 
by their success as to threaten the capture of Philadelphia 
and the Indians extended their incursions to the neighbor- 
hood of Reading, where they killed and scalped many of 
the inhabitants. Rumors were rife that both Bethlehem 
and Reading had been burned to the ground, and the wild 
fear, now long forgotten, which only the torch and toma- 
hawk could inspire, everywhere prevailed. In this time 
of trial and excitement women looked to Joseph Richard- 
son as a protector. The young men of the vicinity 
gathered about him, and forming them into a company, 
he led them toward the frontier and the enemy. In 1757 
he was elected commissioner of Philadelphia county. Tn 
1765, together with Judge William Moore, of Moore Hall,- 
Dr. William Smith, Provost of the University, Benjamin 
Franklin, the Rev. Thomas Barton, Israel Jacobs, his 
brother-in-law, who was afterwards a member of the 
second United States Congress, and others, he engaged in 
an extensive speculation in Nova Scotia.^ They bought 

^ Jacob's MSS. 



262 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

two hundred thousand acres of land there, and intending 
to found a colony, proceeded to lay out the town of 
Monckton on the Petitcoodiac river and Frankfort on the 
St. Johns river. In the language of the agreement each 
adventurer should receive one of four town lots, sixty by 
two hundred and twenty-five feet in dimensions, one hun- 
dred and fifty acres in the outlying tract for himself and 
wife, and fifty acres additional for every Protestant person 
or child he took with liim. The other three lots remained 
the property of the company ; but, until that time in the 
future when they were to be sold at great profit, they 
could be used by the adventurers as gardens. Houses 
were to be erected, sixteen feet square and one-and-a-half- 
stories high. Two vessels filled with emigrants who ac- 
cepted these terms and loaded with hoes, spades and im- 
plements of husbandry sailed from Philadelphia. When 
they arrived in Nova Scotia, however, the ungrateful 
settlers finding that lands were plentiful and occupants 
few, scattered whither they chose throughout the country 
and the scheme ended in a failure. It seems strange that 
while the forests were still standing along the Schuylkill 
it should ever have been attempted. The will of Frank- 
lin contains one devise to his son William, who had been 
a loyalist. It is for his interest in these lands ; and he 
explains the gift by saying with caustic severity, that it 
was the only part of his estate remaining within the 
sovereignty of the King of Great Britain.^ 

In 1771, Richardson made arrangements for a visit to 
England. For several years previously, the people of 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey had been much annoyed 

' Franklin selected Anthony Wayne as the snrveyor of these lands 
for the company. A printed copy of the agreement with the adventu- 
rers, accompanied by a rough draft of the site, the original French deeds 
for the tract and many of Richardson's MSS. are in my possession. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH RICHARDSON. 263 

hy the appearance of counterfeit bills, imitating so closely 
the currency of those provinces, as to make their detec- 
tion extremely difficult. They were issued in consider- 
able numbers, and with such dexterity, that for a long 
time the authorities, though earnest and on the alert, were 
completely baffled. Finally, in 1773, a clue to the source 
whence they came, it was believed, had been discovered, 
and it pointed toward two persons, one well known to 
the community, and the other comparatively obscure. 
Samuel Ford was with some difficulty captured, and hav- 
ing been convicted, ended his life upon the scaffi)ld. On 
Wednesday the 18th of August, the sheriflF of Philadel- 
phia county, provided with a warrant from one of the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, and attended by an armed 
posse of resolute men, hastened with great secrecy to ar- 
rest Joseph Richardson. Tradition tells that the officers 
of the law surrounded his house in the night, and awoke 
him from his slumbers. He recognized from his cham- 
ber window some of them as acquaintances, and inviting 
them courteously inside, entertained them in such man- 
ner as the unexpectedness of their visit permitted. 
Though surprised at the enormity of the charge, he ex- 
pressed a perfect willingness to accompany them, and 
only requested del^y long enough to enable him to ar- 
range his clothing. While, however, he was displaying 
the blandness and suavity of a host toward welcome 
guests, his Quaker wife, true to her husband, and we 
dare not say false to her faith, quietly escaped from the 
house and saddled the fleetest of his fine horses. Sud- 
denly he jumped from a rear window, and, with needless 
bravado, appearing a moment afterward mounted before 
the eyes of his astonished companions, he shouted, " Now, 
come along, gentlemen," and rode away into the darkness. 
Startled by this unexpected coup, they discharged their 



264 HISTORICAL AND BI0QRAPHI(5AL SKETCHES. 

weapons at random, and pursuit, though undertaken with, 
vigor, was utterly vain. On the other hand, the officers 
made a report, the gist of which was that they beset his 
house in the daytime for many hours, and used every 
effort to take him ; but that, with loaded pistols and 
other weapons, he bade them defiance, and kept them at 
bay until night, when he succeeding in eluding them, 
and escaped to his horse.^ The differing accounts bear 
equal testimony to his adroitness and daring, and doubt- 
less his outwitted and disappointed antagonists stood some- 
what in awe of him. Governor Penn immediately issued 
a proclamation, offering a reward of £300 for his capture. 
Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, who met with some 
censure from the Legislature, offered £300 more, and the 
newspapers urged their readers, and all of his majesty's 
good subjects to make every exertion to secure " this very 
dangerous man." The plantation, the island, the ser- 
vant, the horses and all of his property, were seized and 
sold, and henceforth he was an outcast and a wanderer. 
Soon afterward the war commenced, and in the folk lore 
which has come down to us from that era, Richardson 
appears as the hero of many a marvelous tory inci- 
dent, and is described as a cherished companion of those 
noted Bucks county desperadoes, the Doanes, in their 
deeds of lawlessness and adventure. Once a man named 
Conway came upon him lurking in a dense wood, where 
stands the present village of Port Providence, which then 
belonged to David Thomas, the husband of Richardson's 
sister, and the grandfather of the author of Lippincott's 
biographical. dictionary. He compelled Conway to bring 
him some food, and by threats of death if his where- 
abouts should be divulged, enforced secrecy. A farm 

'Penna. Packet, Aug. 23d, 1773. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH ^^,rCHARDSON. 265 

Louse of the neighborhood has a portion of the garret 
separated from the rest by a pk\stered partition, forming 
a false chamber without windows ; and in this dark re- 
ceptacle, called still by the country folk " the Richard- 
son hole," it is said that he and the Doanes used to hide 
away their booty. Once lie went to Broraback's tavern 
in Chester county, and laying a loaded pistol within 
reach, ate a meal while the cowed bystanders looked on 
without daring- to interfere. At another time, being 
closely pursued by a body of horsemen, among whom, 
we are told, were several of the Vanderslices, he rode 
across the country to the Delaware, and nothing daunted, 
plunged into the river. His horse fatigued by a long 
course, struggled ineffectually against the waves, and so 
leaving the animal to its fate, he threw himself from its 
back, and swimming across to the Jersey shore again es- 
caped. " But the fox must sleep some times, and the wild 
de^r must rest," and February 24th, 1777, a vigilant in- 
dividual wrote to inform the Committee of Safety that 
the " famous or infamous Ritchardson " had been seen in 
Philadelphia. Three days later. General Thompson, Major 
Butler, and some other officers, captured him between the 
city of York and the Susquehanna river, and conveyed 
hira to Lancaster, and there had him securely confined in 
the jail. His good fortune however, did not yet desert 
him, and, strange to relate, either because of his iimo- 
cence or shrewdness there seems to have been an entire 
lack of evidence against him. The mittimus in the first 
instance charged him with being a tory ; but this accusa- 
tion was abandoned, and that of forging and counterfeit- 
ing substituted. Having demanded and received from 
William Atlee, Chairman of the Committee of liancaster 
county, a certificate to the effect that there was no proof 

of his being in league with the enemy, he wrote concern- 

17 



266 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ing the other charge, a bold letter to Colonel Timoth}r 
Matlack, Secretary of the Council of Safety, saying that 
tlie reports against him had been circulated by ill-disposed 
persons, and that before the war he had gone without avail 
to Philadelphia county to be tried.' He intimated that 
his confinement would be of disadvantage to the Conti- 
nental cause, since, if continued, his son, who held a com- 
mission in the service, would be compelled to resign ; and 
he appealed to Matlack as an old friend to procure an 
early disposition of the case. Atlee, whom the Council 
authorized to act in the matter, refused to discharge him 
upon bail, holding that although no evidence of his guilt 
had been produced, the proclamation of the Governors 
made upon affidavits raised a very strong presumption of 
it. In June, Daniel Clymer renewed the application to 
the Council for him, and he was then liberated after a 
confinement of about four months. Three years later, 
on the 6th of March, 1780, he was again arrested upon a 
warrant from Joseph Reed, President of the Supreme 
Executive Council, issued by their direction, and thrown 
into jail in Philadelphia. The old accusation of counter- 
feiting was renewed, and in addition it was declared that 
he was disaffected to the cause of America, and his going 
at large was injurious to the interests of the good people 
of the State. ^ It must be admitted that his incarcera- 
tion upon charges vague and seemingly impoHsible to 
prove, has much the appearance of persecution. He im- 
mediately presented a petition for a hearing. The Coun- 
cil submitted him to a searching examination, remanded 
him to jail, and at the expiration of two months ordered 
his release, " on condition of his leaving the State of Penn- 

^ Penna. Archives, vol. v, pages 239, 248 and 254. 
^Colonial Records, vol. xi, pp. 21G, 220; voi. xii, 270, 272, 273, 
339. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH KICHARDSON. 267 

sylvania, and going to some other part of America not in 
the possession of the enemy, not to return to this State 
without leave." If he obeyed these requirements, it was 
only for a short time, for he had returned to his old neigh- 
borhood in 1782, and there, before 1798, he probably 
died.^ The latter part of his life seems to be involved 
in impenetrable obscurity, and doubtless his relatives and 
friends were loath to renew the recollections of a career 
which, though it opened with much brilliancy, was after- 
ward tarnished by suspicion, if not stained with crime. 

Was he guilty ? A hundred years have rolled away, 
and who can answer now a question which was not de- 
termined then ? AVhile the intelligent wife of an Eng- 
lish baronet can recognize the coarse features of an Aus- 
tralian butcher as those of her own educated and refined 
son ; while thousands of people believe, and scores of them 
declare upon oath, that an unfortunate convict is the heir 
of one of the oldest Saxon families of the realm, who can 
solve the mysteries of the past? His long flight lends 
color to the accusations, and his subsequent readiness to 
meet his accusers has the appearance of innocence. If 
blameless, he was the unhappy victim of one of those 
webs of circumstance which are sometimes woven about 
even the purest of men, checking their usefulness and 
darkening their fame, and if guilty, strength of intellect 
and craft enabled him to conceal the traces so effectually 
that the keenest of his enemies were powerless to dis- 
cover them. In reaching a decision, it should not be for- 
gotten that whatevei- were the virtues of oui- revolution- 
ary grandsires, lenity toward those suspected of loyalty 
was not one of them, and the repeated arrests and im- 
prisonments of Richardson show what would have been 

' Jacobs' MSS. 



268 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

his fate, could the proof have been obtained. We com- 
mend the study of his life and character to the coming 
American novelist, who will fix upon the crests of our 
own Alleghanies some of the halo, which since the begin- 
ning of the century has radiated from the highlands of 
Scotland. 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 

COLONEL OF THE PENNSYLVANIA MUSKETRY 
BATTALION IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY. 



From the Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. II, p. 74. 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE.' 



The family of Atlee reached distinction very early in 
the history of England. Contemporaneous with Richard 
Coeur de Lion was Sir Richard Atte Lee, who appears 
conspicuously in the ballads of Robin Hood, and who is 
represented in the " Lytell Geste" as saying — 

" An hondreth wynter here before 
Myne Aunsetters Knyghtes have be." 

Antiquarians mention others of the name who lived later, 
and were of almost equal note. As to what was the con- 
nection between these ancient knights and the Pennsyl- 
vania hero, whose career I have undertaken to sketch, 
genealogists give us no certain information. His father, 
William Atlee, of Fordhook House, England, married 
against the wishes of his family Jane Alcock, a cousin of 
William Pitt, and being, perhaps for that reason, thrown 
upon his own resources, obtained, through the assistance 
of Pitt, a position as secretary to Lord Howe. He came 
with Howe to America, landing in Philadelphia, in 
July, 1734.^ 

Samuel John, the second child of the runaway couple, 

^ This paper was written at the request of the Committee on the 
Kestoration of Independence Hall, for the celebration of the one 
hundiedth anniversary of the passage of the resolution respecting 
independence, and the original was deposited in Independence 
Hall, July 1st, 1876. 

^For materials for this sketch I am much indebted to Samuel 
Yorke AtLee, of Washington, D. C, and to the article of John B. 
Linn, in the American Historical Record, vol. iii, p. 448. 



272 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH PJS. 

was born in the year 1739, at Trenton, New Jersey, during 
the temporary residence of his parents at that place.^ 
His father died in Philadelphia in 1744, and his mother, 
persuaded by the friendship and acting under the advice 
of Edward Shippen, removed with her five children to 
Lancaster, Pa., where the earher years of his life were 
spent. From the Reverend McGraw, a man of note, who- 
united the two congenial occupations of a Presbyterian 
divine and a pedagogue, he received as thorough an educa- 
tion as could well be obtained in those days, and after- 
wards commenced the study of law. 

This pursuit, adopted in extreme youth, was abandoned 
at the breaking out of the French and Indian War, when 
an ardent temperament and a sense of duty induced him 
to enter another field, more brilliant and more active, in 
which he was destined to perform services of great benefit 
to the cause of his country, and well worthy the remem- 
brance of posterity. 

^ " William Atlee and Thomas Hooton, of Trenton, having left 
off Trading in Partnership ever since December, 1730, and having 
affixed up Advertisements for every Person Indebted to them to 
come and settle the accounts, and to give Bonds or pay such Bal- 
lances, But few having complied therewith, This is to give 
Notice (by Reason of the Distance of many such Debtors) that 
every such Person who shall neglect or refuse to pay the Ballance 
of their several Accounts, or clear off such Bonds or Penal Bills 
owing to the said Atlee and Hooton on or before the first Day of 
May next, 1741, may expect to be sued for the same, the said Atlee 
and Hooton having agreed after tbat Time to deliver their Books ta 
a Lawyer, to recover for them, the said Debts then outstanding 
without Distinction of any Person whatsoever or further sending 
after them. 

N.B. The said William Atlee (until he can clear all Affairs re- 
lating to Partnership with Thomas Hooton), proposes with John 
Dagworthy, jun., to continue Store in Trenton, to sell cheap, and 
buy and sell only for ready money." — American Weekly Mercury^ 
Februarv CGth, 1740-41. 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 273 

He was commissioned an ensign in Col. William Clap- 
ham's Augusta regiment on the 23d of April, 1756, having 
then only completed his sixteenth yf ar, and was promoted 
to a lieutenancy, December 7th, 1757/ The testin:)ony of 
Major James Burd, at about that date, is that he was 
sprightly, spirited, possessed of culture, and attentive to 
his duties. 

In the summer of 1757, he narrowly escaped death 
at the hands of the Indians. He and Sergeant Samuel 
Miles, long companions in arms, went together about half 
a mile from Fort Augusta to gather plums. The trees 
stood in a cleared space near a spring which has since 
borne the name of " The Bloody Spring." While they, 
heedless of danger, w^re busily engaged in plucking and 
eating the fruit, a party of the wily foe, under cover of the 
wood and brush, had succeeded in getting almost between 
them and the fort. As it chanced, however, just at that 
time a soldier of the Bullock Guard came to the spring tO' 
get some water, and tlie Indians, unable to resist the 
temptation or fearing discovery, fired at and killed him. 
His misfortune saved Miles and Atlee, who forsook their 
banquet of plums and hastened with all speed to the 
fort.' 

Atlee participated in the Forbes' Campaign against the 
French and Indians, and was engaged in a battle near Fort 
Du Quesne, September 15th, 1758, and in another at 
Loyal Hanna, October 12th, 1758. He was commissioned 
a captain. May 13th, 1759, and was in the service 
altogether eleven years, during which time he was taken 
prisoner, once by the French, and another time by the 
Indians. From a letter written to Major Burd, June 6th,. 

' Penna. Archives, vol. iii, pp. 89, 336. 
^ Amer. Hist. Rec, vol. ii. p. 51. 



274 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

1757, it would appear that he was then in comraanJ at 
Fort Halifax. 

On the 19th of April, 1762, he married Sarah Richard- 
son, the daughter of a reputable farmer in the neighbor- 
hood of Lancaster, and, at tlie close of his protracted 
term of military service, retired to a farm near that city 
in the expectation of passing the remainder of his life in 
the enjoyment of domestic happiness and tranquillity. 
He was not, however, long to remain undisturbed. But 
^ few years had elapsed before the constantly increasing 
difficulties between Great Britain and her colonies had 
culminated in a resort to arms, and Atlee was one of a 
very small number in Lancaster county who possessed 
military experience. During the year 1775, he was con- 
stantly engaged in organizing and drilling troops. In the 
spring of 1776 the Assembly of Pennsylvania determined 
to raise a force of fifteen hundred men for the defence of 
the State, to consist of two battalions of riflemen and one 
of musketry. 

The musketry battalion comprised eight companies, each 
having a captain, lieutenant, ensign, two sergeants, two 
corporals, a fifer, drummer, and fifty-two privates. The 
uniform of the men seems to have been blue coats faced 
with red, white jackets, and buckskin breeches. The two 
battalions of riflemen were consolidated into one regiment 
under the command of Samuel Miles, the old friend of 
Atlee, and John Cadwalader was chosen as the colonel of 
the musketry. Cadwalader, however, declined, because his 
request for the command of the other battalion had not 
been complied with, and on the 21st of March, Atlee was 
selected to fill the vacancy in preference to Col. Daniel 
Brodhead and Major Coates, who had made application 
for the position. Caleb Parry, a descendant of one of the 
Welsh families of the Chester Valley, was appointed 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 



275 



Lieutenant-Colonel, and James Potts, Major. The ranks 
of the other officers were fixed in the following order : — 



Captains. 
Patrick Anderson, 
Peter Z. Lloyd, 
Francis Murray, 
Abraham Marshall, 
Thomas Herbert, 
Abraham Dehuff, 
John Nice, 
Joseph Howell, Jr., 



Lieutenants. 

Walter Finney, 
Matthias Weidman, 
Morton Garret, 
John Davis, 
Joseph McClellan 
Robert Caldwell, 
Barnard Ward, 
Peter Shaffner. 



Ensigns. 

James Lang, 
Wm. Henderson, 
Alex. Huston, Jr., 
John Kirk, 
James Sutor, 
Henry Valentine, 
Michael App, 
Joseph Davis.' 



Atlee left his wife and her family of young children 
without any other attendant or assistant than John 
Hamilton, a man hired to do the work on his farm, who 
was in consequence excused from the performance of 
military duties, and hastened to his command. 

Some empty houses at Chester and Marcus Hook were 
rented for barracks, and the work of recruiting and 
drilling commenced. Money, however, was scarce, equip- 
ments were scanty, and the services of the troops were in 
demand to assist the Continental Army almost immediately. 
Parry took four companies to Philadelphia on the 13th of 
June, and the remainder of the battalion soon followed. 

Its strenorth was as follows : — 

o 

August 1st. 

49 

38 

49 

44 (Now Jos. McClellan's) 50 

59 
55 
50 
47 







July 1st 


Anderson' 


Company, 


56 


Lloyd's 




61 


Murray's 




52 


Marshall's 




44 ( 


Dehufi's 




64 


Herbert's 




57 


Nice's 




55 


Howell's 




55 



444 



397'^ 



Votes of Assembly, vol. vi, p. 702. 

Penna. Archives, vol. iv, p. 780; vol. v, p. 4. 



276 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

On tlie 3d of July, Congress made a requisition upon 
the Council of Safety for as many of these battalions as 
could be spared, to be placed under the orders of the 
Commander-in-Chief, and receive Continental pay and 
rations. 

About half of Atlee's battalion were then without firelocks 
but the necessity for their presence was so great that they 
were ordered to march on the 5tli, and they arrived at 
Amboy on the 21st. Though inadequately equipped, they, 
according to the testimony of an observer, "alarmed the 
enemy not a little." On the 2d of August, Atlee wrote, 
from Perth Amboy, that many of the men were without 
either shirts, breeches, or stockings, in their present state 
they could not be kept clean, and, if it had not been that 
they were in the face of the enemy, he woukl consider 
the maintenance of strict discipline a cruelt3^ 

On the 11th of August he marched to New York, 
bearing a letter of introduction to Washington from Gen. 
Hugh Mercer, but with his troops " in a disgraceful 
situation with respect to clothing." They encamped 
with the rest of the army on Long Island. 

Before light, on the fatal morning of the 27th of 
August, word came that a picket on the lower road 
leading to the Narrows, had been attacked, and with the 
first dawn, Stirling's brigade, consisting of the battalions 
of Smallwood, Haslett, Lutz, Kichline and Atlee, in all 
about twenty-three hundred men, were sent to repel the 
enemy. About half after seven o'clock they met the left 
wing of the British army, consisting of nine regiments of 
infantry, with artillery, advancing under command of 
Gen. Grant. Atlee was sent forward to check the enemy 
at a morass, and he sustained a severe artillery fire until 
the brigade formed upon a height. He then filed oft" to 
the left, and seeing a hill about three hundred yards 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 277 

■ahead, advantageously situated to prevent any flank 
movement, be marched toward it to take possession. 
When within fifty yards of the summit he was, however, 
received by a heavy fire from the enemy, who bad 
anticipated him. 

At first his detachment, consisting of his own battalion 
and two companies of Delaware troops, wavered, but 
they soon recovered and charged with so much resolution 
that the British were compelled to retire from the bill, 
with a loss of fourteen killed and seven wounded. The 
men, flushed with their advantage, were eager to pursue, 
but Atlee, perceiving a stone fence lined with wood about 
sixty yards to the front, and thinking it might prove to 
be an ambuscade, ordered a halt. His conjecture proved 
to be correct. A hot fire was poured into them from 
behind this fence, but was returned with fo much vigor 
that the enemy retreated. In this engagement, lasting 
for fifteen minutes, the brave Parry, long lamented as 
the first Pennsylvanian of distinction to lose his life in 
the Revolutionary War, was struck on the forehead by a 
ball and instantly killed. 

The British afterwards made two successive efibrts iu 
force to gain this eminence, but were both times repulsed 
with severe loss, including among their killed Lieut.-Ool. 
Grant. After the failure of their last attempt, however, 
Atlee discovered that the American left and centre had 
been driven back, and that the enemy had swept around 
to his rear. He sent word of his successes to Stirling 
and asked for orders, but getting no reply he concluded to 
retire and join the brigade. Much to his astonishment, 
he found that it had withdrawn without his having been 
informed. He still had time to make good his retreat, 
but perceiving the rear of the Americans in the act of 
crossing a body of water, and a force of British grenadiers 



278 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

advancing against them, with the instinct of a true 
soldier he led his fatigued troops to the attack, and, by a 
determined effort, succeeded in holding the enemy at bay 
long enough to enable his friends to escape, and to prevent 
all chance of his following their example. 

After several other struggles, wearied and worn out 
with hopeless and continued fighting, and not having 
eaten or drunk for twenty-four hours, he, with the rem- 
nant of his force, about forty men, was compelled to 
surrender.^ He might well claim, as he afterwards did, 
that to the exertions of his battalion the preservation of 
the American army on that disastrous day was largely 
due. On the 5th of September, Col. Daniel Brodhead 
wrote : " poor Atly I can hear nothing of. Col. Parry 
died like a hero." And the next day, Jos. Reed, in a 
letter to his wnfe, said : " I am glad Atlee is safe, because 
everybody allows he behaved welL"^ The battalion 
lost in commissioned officers: killed, Lieut.-Col. Parry 
and Lieut. Moore ; prisoners, Col. Atlee, Captains Murray, 
Herbert, Nice and Howell, Lieut. Finney, and Ensigns 
Henderson, Huston, and Septimus Davis ; and missing, 
Ensign App. There were prisoners and missing among 
the non-commissioned officers and privates : — 





Sergeants. 


Drummers. 


Privates. 


Anderson's Company, 


1 





9 


Murray's " 








10 


Herbert's " 








8 


Dehuff's 








6 


Nice's " 








9 


Howell's " 








7 


McClellan's 








12 


Late Lloyd's " 





1 


14 



1 1 7.V 

' Atlee's Journal, Penna. Archives, sec. series, vol. i, p. 511. 

-' Reed's Reed, vol. i, p. 231. 

•' Penna. Gazette, Sept. 11th, 1776. 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 279' 

The shattered condition of the battaHon is attested by 
a letter from Oapt. Patrick Anderson, who took command, 
to Franklin, on the 22d of September, in which, after 
referring to the losses in the battle and subsequent dis- 
couragements, he says : that the number remaining for 
duty was only eighty-three, and that " want of neces- 
sarys Sowered the men's minds. Deficiencys in their 
Stipulated Eations hath Increased it." Atlee was held 
as a prisoner until October 1st, 1778, about twenty-six 
months, and was for a part of the time confined on a 
prison ship. He was one of a very few who possessed 
sufficient courage to continue wearing the rebel uniform 
after finding that it led to insult and abuse. He and 
Miles, still companions, made strenuous efforts to relieve- 
the wants of those prisoners who, as winter approached,, 
suffered from the lack of clothing and provisions. Hous- 
sacker, a Major of Wayne's battalion, who had deserted 
to the enemy, came among them to endeavor to persuade 
them to pursue the same course, saying that Washington 
was compelled to pay enormous bounties to keep any 
force in the field, and that the war was virtually ended, 
but his efforts received no encouragement.^ Shortly after 
Atlee's exchange, the Supreme Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania, through their President Joseph Reed, 
recommended him to Washington for promotion to tho 
grade of a Brigadier-General; saying, that "his merit 
and sufferings rendered him worthy their Regard & At- 
tention," but without success, there being no vacancy. 
At this juncture, however, his old friends of Lancaster 
county, proud of his career, transferred him from the field 
to the council, electing him a member of Congress, No- 
vember 20th, 1778. 

^ Graydon's Memoirs, pp. 205, 218. 



.280 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

He took his seat December 24th, and served in this 
capacity until October 28th, 1782, omitting one year. 
In Congress he was at once awarded a prominent posi- 
tion, and his name is associated with the principal meas- 
ures coming before that body, especially with reference 
to the conduct of the war. He was one of two members 
appointed to attend the board of war, and one of five to 
visit the New Hampshire Grants. He was a member of 
the committees to which at various times were referred 
Washington's plan for a western expedition in 1779, the 
attack upon the fort at Paulus Hook, Brodhead's Expe- 
dition against the Mingo and Muncy Indians, ihe revolt 
in the Pennsylvania line in 1781, the court of inquiry as 
to Gen. Gates' conduct of the war in the South, " the 
late murderous and wanton execution of Col Haynes" in 
1781, the victory at Eutaw Springs, the advancement of 
Knox and Moultrie to be Major-Generals, and the raising 
of troops. Just before the close of his last term he par- 
ticipated in a scene which, though the actors were our 
revolutionary forefathers and the subject the dry details 
■of a mathematical calculation, nevertheless provokes a 
grave smile. $1,200,000 had to be raised to pay the 
interest on ihe public debt, and the committee, having 
the subject in charge, made a report, apportioning the 
amount among the different States. Delegates from no 
less than eight of the thirteen were on their feet imme- 
diately trying to get their respective allotments reduced. 
Maryland wanted to transfer part of her burden to Con- 
necticut, and Connecticut thought she was overloaded 
already ; Rhode Island tried to give a part of her quota 
to New Jersey ; Massachusetts and Pennsylvania a part of 
theirs to Virginia ; New York, New Hampshire, and 
Georgia, more modest, only asked to have their respective 
proportions diminished, the last "because of the ravages 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 281 

of the war." As however, each motion was supported 
by the delegates from the interested State alone and op- 
posed by all the others, the report of the committee was 
finally adopted/ 

Atlee served as Lieutenant of Lancaster county, a 
position of much labor and responsibility, in 1780; and 
in 1783 was elected a member for that county of the 
Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. On the 
23d of February, 1784, he, William Maclay, and Francis 
Johnston were appointed commissioners to treat with the 
Indians for the unpurchased lands within the limits of 
the State. 

They met the chiefs of the Six Nations at Fort Stan- 
wix, N. Y. (Rome), on the 24th of October, and these 
transactions, which secured to Pennsylvania the title to 
land now forming fourteen entire counties and portions of 
others, are worthy of a brief reproduction. Atlee, on 
behalf of the commissioners, said to the Indians, that the 
young men who were now numerous required more terri- 
tory, and that they, according to the customs of their 
forefathers, had come to purchase, so that the settlements 
might be made in peace ; that for this purpose they had 
brought a valuable and suitable cargo as a compensation, 
but that since the lands were remote a great considera- 
tion ought not to be expected. The Indians took a day 
to deliberate, and replied through a chief of the Senecas 
that it was not their wish to part with so much of their 
hunting-grounds, and they pointed out a line which they 
hoped would prove satisfactory. 

This proposition the commissioners rejected, adding 
that the privilege of hunting might be retained, and that 
they had an assortment of goods of the first quality 

Journals of Congress. 

18 



282 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

valued at $4000, which certainly ought to convince the 
Indians of the many advantages flowing from trade with 
their brothers of Pennsylvania. The chief then replied, ^ 
that, since they wanted to keep the way smooth and 
even and to brighten the chains of friendship, they would 
agree, but as lands afforded a lasting and rising profit, 
and as Pennsylvanians were always generous, they hoped 
to receive something further the following year. An 
additional $1000 was promised, and the deeds were 
signed. The commissioners went from there to Sunbury, 
and thence to Fort Mcintosh, Pa. (Beaver), where they 
met the Wyandots and Dela wares, who had a claim on 
the lands. These tribes confirmed the sale after vainly 
endeavoring to retain a small reservation.-^ By lying on 
the damp ground during this journey, Atlee contracted a 
cold from which he never recovered. He was elected a 
member of the Assembly in the years 1782, 1785, and 
1786, and, while attending the session in Philadelphia in 
1786, ruptured a blood vessel during a paroxysm of 
coughine;, and died on the 25th of November. 

" So past the strong heroic soul away, 

And when they buried him, the little port 
Had seldom seen a costlier funeral." 

His remains, attended by two celebrated divines, and 
followed by the Supreme Executive Council, the Assem- 
bly which had adjourned for the purpose, the magistrates 
of the city, army officers, and a numerous concourse of 
citizens, were borne to Christ Church-yard and there 
interred. The newspapers of the time, recognizing his 
worth and services, published warm eulogies upon his 
character, and his death at the early age of forty-eight 
years was universally deplored. There is, however, a 
darker side to the picture. The public service of Atlee, 

' Minutes of Assembly, 1784, p. 314. 



SAMUEL JOHN ATLEE. 28S 

requiring the abandonment of home and family, and at- 
tended by exposure and deprivation, was performed not 
only at the expense of his health and comfort, but of his 
private fortune. In 1780, 1782, and again in 1783, he 
suggested to the Assembly the propriety of some remune- 
ration. A few days after his death, a petition from a 
number of citizens, accompanied with vouchers, was pre- 
sented to the Assembly, setting forth his labors in the 
cabinet, and in the field, in the cause of the State, and of 
the United States, and asking that his family receive 
some adequate compensation. So far as I have been able 
to ascertain, the matter was permitted to slumber with- 
out action. 

It is now too late to repay in any way these debts to 
the worthies of the American Revolution, but we can at ' 
least see to it that ourselves and our children preserve a 
lasting sense of gratitude for their services, and that in 
the hurry and bustle of our present growth and prosperity 
their courage and sacrifices, from which we derive the 
benefit, be not permitted to fall into forgetful ness. 

Dr. Wm. P. Dewees, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
said of Atlee, that he was a very handsome man, of fault- 
less manners. He had a fresh and ruddy complexion, 
brown hair and blue eyes, and his military bearing set off 
to advantage an erect and full figure. 

His "personal respectability" impressed President 
Madison. That he could be moved to anger is proven by 
the fact that he inflicted personal and public chastisement 
upon a very celebrated man of the time who said some- 
thing derogatory to the character of Washington. He 
left nine children, one of whom married the daughter of 
Anthony Wayne, and from this union the only living 
descendants of that great captain derive their origin. 



JAMES ABEAM GARFIELD. 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD/ 



James Abram Garfield, twentieth President of the 
United States, was born in Orange township, Cuyahoga 
county, Ohio, November 19th, 1831, and died at Elberon, 
New Jersey, September 19th, 1881, from the effects of a 
wound by a pistol ball, fired by a worthless wretch in the 
city of Washington, July 2d, 1881. 

Edward Garfield, the founder of the family in America, 
■of sturdy Saxon stock, came from Chester, England, and 
settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, as early, as 1630. 
He lived to be ninety-seven years old. The men of his 
race seem to have taken to themselves wives of equal 
physical vigor. The Philadelphia Weekly Mercury, of 
February 3d, 1729-30, notices the death of Mrs. Garfield 
of Watertown, at the age of ninety years. Thus remotely 
may be traced tliat exuberant vitality which enabled the 
future President to smile hopefully and live for nearly 
three months with a shattered vertebra. 

In the local affairs of the New England burghs in which 
they lived, and through the colonial and Revolutionary 
wars, the Garfields bore an active if not a prominent part. 

Solomon, the great-grandfather of the President, re- 
moved to Otsego county, New York, and his grandson, 
Abram, obeying that fateful call, which has ever been 
coming from the forests and prairies of the West to young 

This memorial note, written at the request of the Council of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, was read before it at its meeting 
held September 26th, 1881, and was ordered to be entered upon 
the minutes. 



288 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

men of robust natures possessing the instinct of thrifty 
went, when eighteen years old, to Ohio. Tliere he 
married Eliza Ballou, of Huguenot ancestry, and died 
when James, his boy of promise, was under two years of 
age. When the head of a household is taken away ere 
his work is done, and the wife is left alone to provide for 
a family of young children, the struggle is necessarily one 
of hardship and is attended with much of privation and 
trial. These were the circumstances that surrounded the 
childhood and youth of Mr. Garfield ; but many of the 
events of this early period, which were mere episodes in 
his career, have been given undue prominence. The 
American public is prone to believe that the men, who 
have moulded its destinies, have come up from the depths. 
It learns with peculiar delight that its popular heroes, its 
orators and statesmen, have been " The Mill Boy of the 
Slashes," the inhabitant of a " Log Cabin," the " Rail 
Splitter," and the "Canal Boy of the Towpath." To 
meet the exigencies of political campaigns, the good 
antecedents of Lincoln and Garfield have been passed 
over lightly or forgotten, while the sombre hues have 
been painted darker and the pits digged deeper. The 
lofty aspirations, the correct tastes, and the large capacity 
of Mr. Garfield," soon enabled him to overcome the 
obstacles that confronted him. He saved enough frona 
his earnings to get the benefit of a course of schooling at 
the rural academy of his neighborhood. By teaching 
school, and by working as a carpenter and a harvest hand, 
he earned enough more to maintain himself for two years 
at Williams College. It is worthy of remark that he was 
fitted to enter the junior class, that he was one of the 
editors of the college paper, nnd that, at graduation, he 
took tiie class honor in metaphysics. Up to this time, 
when he was twenty-five years of age, he had never cast 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 289' 

a vote, but the principles of the Republican party, then 
just coming into existence, met with his approval and ap- 
pealed to his sympathies; and in 1856 he made his first 
political speech. He had several years earlier delivered 
a number of sermons, as a lay preacher, in the Church of 
the Disciples, with which he was connected. On his 
return from college, he was chosen professor of ancient 
languages in the Hiram Eclectic Institute, and later 
principal of that academy. During the next three or 
four years, he lectured to liis classes, delivered public ad- 
dresses upon scientific and literary subjects, spoke on the 
stump through the political campaigns, and on Sundays 
preached. 

In 1859, he was elected to the State Senate. While 
there he read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861 
The war, however, turned him aside from a professional 
career. 

He was appointed to the colonelcy of an Ohio regi- 
ment, and befoi'e 1863, through gallantry and skill at 
Sandy Valley, Pittsburg Landing and Chickamauga, he 
had reached the position of chief of staff to General 
Rosecrans and the rank of Major General. He was also 
a member of that celebrated court martial which tried 
and convicted Fitz John Porter. 

While in the military service, he was elected to Con-_ 
gress. He took his seat in 1863, and for the next eigh- 
teen years was continued in this position, representing a 
larger majority of voters chan any other member of the 
House. These eighteen years constitute a period in 
which was enacted the most important legislation in the 
history of the country. The military measures of the 
war, the reconstruction of the seceded States, the raising 
and collection of immense revenues, the financial policy 
to be pursued, the resumption of specie payments and 



290 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the disputed succession to the presidency, were among 
the problems successfully solved. Certain!}'-, statesmen 
no where were ever called upon to grapple with questions 
of greater moment. It is enough to indicate the strength 
of Mr. Garfield that he was one of the military commit- 
tee during the war, chairman of the committee on appro- 
priations afterwards, a member of the electoral commis- 
sion in 1876, and became the recognized leader of his 
party in the House. The Ohio Legislature, in 1880, 
■elected him to the United States Senate, for the term be- 
ginning November 4th, 1881. 

No party convention ever had it in its power to affect 
more seriously the institutions of the country than that 
which assembled in Chicago, in 1880, to nominate a can- 
didate for the presidency. A few months earlier, the 
selection of ex-President Grant had seemed inevitable. 
For two years, a banker in Philadelphia,^ with a taste for 
higher politics, had been urging the nomination of Mr. 
Oarfield in the columns of the Penn Monthly and making 
combinations looking to that result. On the first ballot 
Mr. Garfield had but one vote, that of a friend of the 
Philadelphia banker. On the thirty-sixth ballot he was 
nominated. After a close struggle he was elected, and so 
it happened that he was a member of the House, a mem- 
ber elect of the Senate, and President elect of the United 
States at the same time ; a distinction which never fell to 
man before. The policy of his administration had barely 
been defined, its strength had just been successfully tested, 
when an assassin crept up behind him and gave him a 
fatal wound. 

Though his rule was brief, there are two things which 
will make it historic. His elevation marked the dissipa- 

* Mr. Wharton Barker. 



JAMES ABEAM GAKFIELD. 291 

tion of that power dangeroas to the republic, which waa 
concentrated during the war, and in sympathy with him 
the men of the North and the men of the South were for 
the first time thoroughly reunited. Mr. Garfield was a 
man of great physical power. He was tall, with broad 
shoulders, a deep chest and a large head, while a contin- 
uous flow of animal spirits indicated his perfect health. 
Intellectually, his most striking characteristic was his im- 
mense breadth. It is given to but a very small number 
of men to succeed in any pursuit. Many are called, but 
few are chosen. The sea of life lines its shores with the 
shells of failures and things dead. Mr. Garfield was a 
scholar learned in the languages of the past, a preacher 
of the Gospel, a soldier in command on the battle field, a 
student of literature, finance and politics, an orator and a 
statesman ; and in all of these diverse paths he reached 
distinction. He wrote a graceful poem, discussed geologi- 
cal problems with the professors, examined into the local 
history of his neighborhood, and with the same ease 
he met the masters of debate in Congress upon abstract 
questions of state. Nature, which has provided the most 
powerful of animals with an organ of such strength that it 
can uproot trees, and of such delicacy that it can untie 
knots, seems to have endowed him'with mental capacities 
of like flexibility. 

He was brave and generous. When the stoutest of the 
partisan leaders threw the glove in his face, he picked it 
up quietly, and his antagonist disappeared from the arena. 
He met his fate like a man. In his long struggle with 
death, there was much that was sublime. He uttered no 
repinings ; he expressed no resentment toward the thing 
that had struck him ; there came from his bed of sufl'er- 
ing no cry, save that sad longing to see once more the 
green fields of his home. When he was elected to the 



292 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

presidency, it seemed that the better days for the repubUc 
were come ; for surely much was to be expected from his 
enlarged mind, his great soul, and his long training in 
statecraft. He laid his strong hand upon the wheel, and 
he is gone. It is his own thought that men affect but for a 
little while our institutions ; that like the raindrops, they 
may pass through the shining bow and add to its lustre ; 
but when they have sunk the proud arch still in glory 
spans the sky. May it prove to be true. " Put him up 
higher!" cried a voice, when he arose to speak in the 
Chicago convention. The voice proved to be that of a 
prophet. It is a consolation to the American people now 
that he is being mourned as ruler never was before, to 
know that in that higher sphere to which he has been 
raised, he is at last at rest from the bitter pain and the 
hopeless struggle. 

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, upon the day 
of his funeral, when every city in the land is draped in 
black, and all trade is suspended, notes this brief outline 
of his career and meagre sketch of his character. 



HENRY ARMITT BROWN. 



HENRY ARMITT BROWN.' 



Me. President : — It was my fortune to have been 
nearer to Mr. Brown, than perhaps, any other of his 
friends among the young bar, during the preparation of 
his last, and probably, his greatest work. After he had 
been invited to deliver the oration at Valley Forge, he 
came to me, because of my acquaintance with the local- 
ity. Together, only four months ago, we examined the 
intrenchments there, and rode to the Paoli and the War- 
ren tavern, and following the track of the British army, 
crossed the Schuylkill at Gordon's Ford. Together, a 
little over two months ago, we read over the completed 
oration. The assistance I was able to give him was lit- 
tle indeed, but the opportunity it afforded me of getting 
a closer insight into his character, I shall always cherish 
among the happiest memories of my life. He was ambi- 
tious, but ambition with him was almost entirely devoid 
of that illness which usually attends it. He was honest, 
but his integrity was not of that sort which sits aloft amid 
luxury and ease, above the reach of temptation, and takes 
no thought of what may be below. The consciousness of 
great abilities made him entirely self reliant, but his con- 
fidence never degenerated into vanity. The successes he 
had achieved, numerous as they were, never made him 
forget that courtesy which becomes a gentleman. The 
culture he had received, did not enervate him, and ap- 
plause had failed to lead him astray. Feeling the im- 

^ Addreps at the meeting of the Bar of Philadelphia, August 
24th, 1878. 



296 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

pulse that came perhaps unwittingly from the possession 
of unusual power, when the occasion called him forth, he 
was always ready, and no one could be long in his pre- 
sence without forecasting for him a future limitless in its 
possibilities. As an orator, and it was in oratory that he 
loved to excel, my own deliberate judgment is, that there 
is no man now living in America who was his equal. 
And surely, an opinion which I have often expressed 
while he was alive, it will not be considered adulation for 
me to repeat now that he is dead. Some are elocution- 
ists, some have the trick of words, some are comprehen- 
sive and some are clear and quick in thought, but he was 
all combined, and the wonder of it is that one whose de- 
livery was so effective should have been so careful in his 
preparation. The Valley Forge oration, beyond question 
the finest which the Centennial Anniversaries called forth, 
as an artistic production is a marvel. With patient in- 
dustry and a determination born of enthusiasm, he 
thoroughly mastered the subject topographically and 
historically. With clear insight, he caught the true in- 
spiration of the scenes of that dreary winter. A more 
beautiful picture than his contrast between the ragged 
Continentals upon the bleak hills, and the Royalists amid 
the luxury of the city, could not be limned, and for two 
hours and a-half the people, at the close of a wearisome 
day of exercises, stood up and listened. A very capable 
historical critic has said to me, that there is no more that 
can be added to the story of Valley Forge. And here- 
after, in the ages to come, when men look back with 
veneration toward the heroes who suffered and died there, 
the young orator, whose earnestness to do justice to their 
memories so sadly shortened his own career, cannot be 
forgotten. Surely some of their renewed glory belongs- 
to him. 



HENRY AEMITT BROWN. 297 

The sorrow which I feel in his early death is partly a 
selfish grief, partly regret at his broken hopes now for- 
ever ended here, but beyond all the loss to my native 
State. We have many men in public life from Pennsyl- 
vania, but they are chiefly of the earth. We have many 
men who are capable and pure, but they have eaten of 
the Lotos, and the spear has dropped from their nerve- 
less hands. With his strength and his ambition he could 
not have been kept from the national councils, but he is 
dead, and the fruits we were promised we shall never 
gather. Why Sumner was spared to Massachusetts until 
his work was done, why Calhoun was permitted to 
grow gray in the service of South Carolina, and our 
Brown, the peer of either, and more liberal than both, 
was snatched away in the green wood, is a question be- 
yond our ken, but which repeats itself the more sadly, 
because we look in vain for one to fill his place. 



19 



Charles Frederick Taylor. 



CHARLES FREDERICK TAYLOR.' 



Comrades and friends : It is a custom in Eastern lands 
for the believers in Allah, to make an annual visit to the 
grave of their prophet. To this shrine the adherents 
of the true faith come with each passing year, to lay 
their offerings upon his tomb, and gather new inspiration 
and new courage, to contend against the difficulties with 
which the pathway to the happy realms above is beset. 
Their fervor, which may have lost something from contact 
with the world, is again enkindled. Their zeal, if it has 
become in aught diminished, is here renewed and they 
depart with the weapons of their faith burnished, and 
with their nerves braced to continue the good fight they 
have commenced. You and I, comrades, have come from 
a distance to the grave lying here at our feet, upon a 
similar errand. After an absence of a year, we have re- 
turned to scatter flowers over him whose name has been 
given to our Post — to recall, in a few words, as we stand 
here in sorrow together, the scenes of his life, and to learn 
from his example new lessons of virtue and self denial. 

There were many things which made the sacrifice of this 
life unusually great. Had he been disposed to follow other 
promptings than those of duty, it would have been easy to 
have found many reasons why he should not expose himself 
to the dangers of the field, and the privations of the camp. 
At the time of the commencement of the war, he had 
scarcely attained the age of manhood. There are some 

^ Address at Longwood Cemetery, Kennett Square, upon Deco- 
ration Day, May 30th, 1871. 



302 HISTOKICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

men who snufFthe scent of battle from afar, and take delight 
in carnage and destruction. There are some to whom, re- 
joicing in the possession and exercise of physical strength, 
the struggle and the contest are a gratification. But he 
was a student, whose intellect had been trained in the 
schools of Europe, and whose hours of leisure were given 
to the retirement of the closet. He was one whose talent, 
encouraged by the world wi.de celebrity, merited and won 
by an older brother,^ would naturally seek to gain its 
laurels in the quiet paths of literature, rather than amid 
the storm and tumult of war. His youth had been spent 
and his ideas formed among a people whose creed it is 
that wrath is oftener turned aside by a soft answer than 
conquered by heavy blows. The doctrines of his ancestry, 
and the early teachings of the good mother who bent over 
his cradle, were those of peace. 

But the time came when considerations such as these 
were as the green withes that bound Sampson. The books 
over which he had pored in the past — ambition that was 
pointing ahead to the smiling future — even the cherished 
opinions of his forefathers were forgotten. A blow had 
had been given at Charleston, and his country was calling 
upon her sons to come to the rescue. These placid 
valleys that seventy years before he was born had been 
trodden by the revolutionary armies, were again disturbed. 
The Quaker hills that had echoed with the thunders ©f 
the battle of Brandywine, now rang with a bugle blast 
from the Potomac. The summons was answered by the 
tap of the drum and the tread of the hurrying feet. The 
dragon's teeth had been scattered widely, and from every 
nook and corner of this broad land, sprang forth armed 
men. The Friend in his drab coat, and using his plain 

' Mr. Bayard Taylor. 



CHARLES FREDERICK TAYLOR. 303 

speech, stood side by side with the Celt in his check shirty 
muttering coarse oaths, and the faces of both were turned 
toward the South. 

There was much in the cause to awaken the sympathies of 
the stern moraUsts of the community about Kennett, for, 
down at the bottom of the contest, lay the principle of 
justice to the lowly and freedom to the enthralled. Men 
of their faith, for standing by the friendless and oppressed, 
had suffered martyrdom in the South, and insult and con- 
tumely in the North, and now the struggle had come. 

The first name signed upon the muster roll of Kennett 
was that of Charles Frederick Taylor, The earnestness 
and patriotism he had exhibited, led to his selection as 
captain, and ere many days had elapsed his company was 
in Harrisburg and incorporated with the " Bucktail" 
regiment. The " Bucktails" won, unaided and alone, 
the first victory of the Army of the Potomac, and on their 
banner were inscribed all the brilliant engap-ements in 
which it participated. Against that army the rebel horde 
hurled its whole strength and the Pennsylvania Keserves 
v/ere ever in the front. During those two earliest years 
of the war, when there were the hardest fighting and 
most sufi'ering, when the blows fell thick and fast, and both 
the combatants fresh and eager for the fraywere straining 
every nerve to gain the ascendancy, this youthful hero 
experienced all the vicissitudes of a soldier's career. 

At one time he was leading his command in the 
brunt of the fight, and at another, was suffering from 
squalor and hunger amid the loathsomeness of a southern 
dungeon. Ere long he was commanding the regiment, 
and had won the proud distinction of being the youngest 
commissioned Colonel in the army of the Potomac. And 
now, after years of strife and bloodshed, the turning 
point was reached. The hill of difficulty had been 



304 HISTORICAL AND BI03RAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

climbed to the summit, and a crisis approached big with 
the fate of America — it may be of the coming generations 
of the world. Lee had marched his army into Pennsyl- 
vania, and upon the field of Gettysburg, was to be de- 
termined whether the record of this republic should be 
rolled up and laid away among the things of the past, or 
whether there was still a mission for it to fulfill. In one 
of the most desperate struggles of that ever memorable 
engagement, Col. Taylor was at the head of his regiment 
leading a charge ; his soul was fired and his eyes were 
flashing with the consciousness of the success which he 
foresaw was at hand ; his sword pointed to the rebels in 
the front and the victory which lay beyond ; words of 
triumph were upon his lips and — here he lies. 

The triumph was for you and me, comrades, but not for 
him — unless it be that those who have passed the im- 
mortal gates still sometimes look back to rejoice in the 
good deeds they have done on earth. He did not live 
to see the fruition of that which his last thoughts 
seem to have anticipated. His career was short, and 
yet if those of us who may reach the alloted three 
score years and ten, should be able to point to a page as 
complete and unstained as that which bears his story, we 
may well be satisfied. He died too soon for the aged 
mother, whose light hands still often rest upon his grave, 
too soon, for the friends who still, as the evening shades J 
deepen, talk in low tones of the brave heart that is gone — " 
but not until the truth, beauty and nobleness of his 
character had made impressions that will last through 
time. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 



BEING THE RECORD OF A TERM IN THE 



MILITARY Service of the United States 



IN THE 



GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN OF 1863. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 



My only reason for writing the following narration of the events 
which transpired, relating particularly to myself, during a short 
term of military service, is that the scenes and occurrences may be 
described while they are still fresh in my memory, and the impres- 
sion of them vivid and distinct. It must have been noticed in the 
experience of every one, that however deep and strong may be tlie 
marks which particular circumstances have made upon our feelings, 
time will gradually erase one point after another, wear off the 
edges, and render the whole dim and uncertain. I have therefore 
determined to write truthfully, minutely, and as clearly as possible,, 
whatever occurred within my own observation during that time, 
thinking that in future years it may be a satisfaction to me to read 
what has here been transcribed. — Philadelphia, November 22d, 
1863. 



Foe several days previous to June 16th, 1863, there 
had been considerable excitement in reference to a 
raid, which it was said, the rebels were about to make 
into Pennsylvania, and there were even rumors flying 
about that there was a large force of them already in 
the southern portion of the State, and that Greencastle 
had been burned. Gov. Curtin, evidently alarmed, had is- 
sued a proclamation calling upon the people to rally to- 
the defence of the commonwealth, but for some reason, 
it was not responded to with any alacrity, and almost 
everywhere the apathy with which it was received, 
seemed to speak ill for the spirit and patriotism of the- 

' This paper is so very personal in its character that it is pub- 
lished after much hesitation and with many misgivings. Several 
considerations have had weight in inducing me to commit what 



308 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

community. In a few of the country towns, there was 
some little effort to raise men, and in Philadelphia, a 
meeting was held, the newspapers called on the citizens 
with glowing words to volunteer, but nobody appeared to 
be willing to shoulder the musket. 

In the meantime the Governors of New York and New 
Jersey had offered their regiments of organized militia, 
and a number of them had already been sent to Harris- 
burg, which made the matter look still worse for the 
Pennsylvanians. Among the causes for this general slug- 
gishness, I may mention the following : th^ idea im- 
pressed upon the minds of many Democrats that the re- 
port was gotten up for political purposes, and Gov. Ourtin 
wanted to entice them into the service to keep them from 
the polls ; the fact that during the preceding summer, 
the militia had been called out but were not made use of 
in any way; and the opinion of most persons that it was 

may seem to be an impropriety. Col. Jotin P. Nicholson, and other 
friends, who are students of the military history of the rebellion, 
and whose judgment is worth much m(>re than my own in such 
matters, have earnestly urged me to print it. The Compte de Paris 
and General Longstreet, unite in saying that "the slightest inci- 
dent which affected the issue of that conflict (Gettysburg) had a 
greater importance than the most bloody battle fought afterwards." 
A Pennsylvanian naturally resents the statement, so often made in 
prose and verse, that John Burns was the only man in Gettysburg 
to display loyalty and courage, and information concerning a regi- 
ment, one of whose companies came from that town, and which was 
the first force to engage the rebel army there when it entered the 
State, ought not, perhaps, to be withheld. An effort was made to 
recast the paper, but it was soon found that the result was to 
destroy all of the color and freshness which constituted its only 
literary merit, and the attempt was abandoned. It is hoped that 
the freedom of comment upon men and affairs will be excused as 
the quick and enthusiastic impressions of a boy of twenty. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 309 

a mere cavalry raid which would be settled without much 
difficulty, and there was no necessity for such a great dis- 
turbance or interfering with the transaction of business. 
During the day first mentioned, I had thought continually 
upon the subject, and come to the conclusion to join a 
company, if any of my friends would be willing to go 
with me. So after work in the evening, 1 went over to 
Phoenixville, and after talking awhile about it proposed 
to some of them to go up to Harrisburg and unite with 
some company there, as there was but little prospect of 
one being raised in our own neighborhood. Horace Lloyd 
seemed to think well of it, but being unable to give a 
definite answer without first consulting with Mr. Morgan, 
promised to let me know early in the morning whether 
he could be spared from the bank — so I returned home un- 
decided. Immediately after breakfast the next day I went 
to hear Lloyd's answer, and found the town in a perfect 
furore of excitement. Some further news had been re- 
ceived, the Phoenix Iron Co, stopped their works, and 
ofiered to pay $1 per day to each man in their employ 
who would enlist, and two companies were then fiUing up 
rapidly, one under their auspices particularly, and the 
other seemingly under the charge of Samuel Cornett, Jos. 
T. McGord, John D. Jenkins, (fee. 

Going into Ullman's sitting room where V. N. ShafFer 
was writing down the names of recruits rapidly, I was in- 
formed that they expected to leave for Harrisburg in the 
9i A. M. train. As it was then 8 o'clock, the time for 
preparation was exceedingly short, so telling Shaffer to 
put my name among the rest, I hurried home to get my 
things ready. I believe mother would have made more 
objection to my going than she did, but I was in such a 
hurry that she had very little opportunity. However, 
she made considerable opposition, but perceiving that I 



310 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

was decided, assisted me in tying up a red horse blanket 
with a piece of clothes line so that it could be thrown 
across the shoulder, prepared some provision consisting of 
a piece of cheese, several boiled eggs, with sundry slices 
of bread and butter which were put in one of the boys' 
school satchels, and a tin cup fastened upon the strap, and 
thus accoutred, I bade all good-bye, except grandfather 
who was out in the field, and hastened over to town. In 
the meantime the departure of the company had been 
postponed until evening, and being formed in ranks by 
McCord, we marched through the borough in the dust to 
the sound of the fife and drum, and returning to the hotel 
held an election for ojQBcers, in which John D. Jenkins 
was chosen Captain, Jos. T. McCord, 1st Lieutenant, and 
A. L. Chalfant, 2d Lieutenant. The captain had been in 
the Mexican war, was a long while High Constable, and 
had the reputation of being very brave and determined, 
but was entirely unacquainted with the modern drill, and 
it seems to me, rather slow in thought and action, 

McCord was along time in Company G, First Reserves, 
participated in the Peninsular battles — was thoroughly 
booked up in Hardee, thought by many to be of a 
tyrannical disposition but I preferred him to any of the 
others. Chalfant was in Mexico and now keep-^ a kind of 
a saloon in Phoenixville. 

After the election we were dismissed with orders to 
meet at the same place at four P. M. I bought some 
necessary articles, a flannel shirt and a large knife and 
went home to dinner more deliberately than before. At 
the appointed hour we left UUman's and marching down 
to the depot filled a special car which had been pro- 
cured. As we passed Dr. Whitaker's, Andy's mother 
called to him that he must not go, but he continued 
with us. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOKM. 311 

He had been trying to persuade her to give her permis- 
sion all day, but she refused, although his father consented. 
There was a tremendous crowd at the depot who cheered 
with their accustomed vigor as the cars passed away at 
half past four. At Pottstown a large number of persoas 
were collected who told us that a company from that 
place expected to leave on the following day. Through the 
kindness of Mr. Thomas Shaffer and some others we had 
on board several fine hams and a quantity of water crackers 
which were served around at about supper time and made 
a very good meal. A number of the men had taken care 
before leaving Phoenixville to lay in a good supply of 
liquor and consequently were soon in a drunken and noisy 
humor. However, we were all noisy enough and being in ex- 
cellent spirits, sang patriotic songs and cheered and shouted 
incessantly. Before we reached Reading a heavy storm 
of rain passed over us and the appearance of the sky 
seemed to indicate continued wet weather. At the latter 
place the train was delayed at least an hour, taking on the 
troop cars, and running backward and forward, so that as 
night was approaching our present prospect of seeing the 
Lebanon valley which was new to the most of us, was 
very slim. George Ashenfelter here brought on to the 
cars a company of rowdy firemen, who were nearly all of 
them drunk, and took a great delight in fighting with a 
number of negroes on the train. Nobody had any control 
over them except George, though he managed them with- 
out much difficulty, by occasionally knocking one or two 
down. We arrived at Harrisburg about half past ten 
o'clock. I recall with considerable amusement the ex- 
pectation I had formed of what would be our reception. 
I had supposed as a matter of course, and I think many 
of the rest had the same idea, that the Governor would 
have some officer at the depot ready to receive us, com- 



312 HISTOEICAL A^'D BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

fortable qnarters prepared for us, and treat us as if we were 
of some consequence. 

We were, therefore, surprised, and our feelings some- 
what chilled, to find that we were left to provide for 
ourselTes and seek accommodations as best we might. As a 
company we represented so much strength, but personally 
we were of no importance whatever. This doctrine, 
universal in the army but new to us, was forced rather 
abruptly upon our notice, and the contemplation of it 
formed our first experience in military life. To reconcile 
our minds to it was the first difficulty to be overcome. 
After deliberating a while we started for the Capitol. As 
we marched through the streets people inquired where 
we were from and cheered us loudly, shouting " Bully 
for Phoenix," &c., but we made the observation, and 
some gave expression to it very pointedly, that for a 
town which was said to be in great danger «f capture, 
and whose inhabitants had been packing up their efiects, 
and removing them and their persons to other cities for 
safety, there were entirely too many men in the streets 
and on the corners who appeared to be taking matters 
as coolly as if there was no cause for disturbing them- 
selves. 

A feeling of displeasure could not be repressed when 
thinking that we had come a hundred miles from a sense 
of duty while those in the immediate vicinity of the 
Capital, who had every incentive to arouse themselves, 
were doing nothing. What before was uncertain and 
undefined became open indignation on reaching the 
Capitol buildings. The Copperhead convention, which 
had assembled for the purpose of nominating a candidate 
for governor, had just chosen Judge Woodward, and held 
pOBSf-Bsion of the hall and seats of the House of Eepre- 
sentatives, shouting, hurrahing and making inflammatory 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 313 

speeches, while the pavement, the stone porch, and the 
floor of the galleries were covered with militia, trying to 
sleep amidst the din. The thought was enough to anger 
a saint — the Capital of the State threatened by the 
rebels, the Governor almost beseeching men to come to 
the rescue, and those who respond compelled to lie 
outside upon the stones and listen to the disloyal yells 
of the enemies of the country comfortably quartered 
within. 

Lloyd, Andy^ and myself went all over the building 
searching for a lodging place, and finally pitched upon 
the stone porch as the most eligible spot, being covered 
by a roof, more clean, cool and less crowded than the 
inside. Several of the men chose the pavement, but as 
it rained during the night they were driven within. I 
spread out my horse blanket, put my bread satchel under 
my head, and endeavored to go to sleep, but the novelty 
of the position, the solidity of the bed, and the unpleas- 
ant practice the man above me had of putting his boots 
on my head, rendered it almost impossible. I finally 
dozed and dreamed a little, with the shouts of the Cop- 
perheads ringing in my ears. About one o'clock they 
adjourned, and came out stepping over us, and went to 
their hotels, all of which they had previously engaged 
and crowded. The men groaned and cursed them, damned 
Woodward, McClellan, and traitors generally, and there 
were several fights in consequence. I awoke Andy and 
Lloyd, and proposed moving our quarters into the hall, 
which Andy and I did, and slept the rest of the night in 
the seats there, very pleasantly, but Lloyd remained out- 
side. A number of our fellows amused themselves in de- 
stroying copies of the "Age" and other papers of like 

^ A. R. Whitaker. 
20 



314 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

character, which packed up ready for maiHng, had been 
left behind. Tn the morning, we were awake by day- 
light, with eyes swollen, and feeling very little refreshed 
by the night's slumber. 

After breakfast, I wrote home to mother, to report pro- 
gress thus far, and we then strolled over the grounds, 
walked down to the Susquehanna, and wandered about 
over the town. There were great efforts made by some 
to find a breakfast in the town, which was almost impos- 
sible, so that we three contented our appetites with what 
we had brought with us. 

Before long, we learned that there was a good bit of 
discontent manifested among the militia, and we were 
told that orders had been issued not to accept any for a 
less term than six months, and already many talked 
about returning home, as they had come with the expec- 
tation of serving as the militia hitherto had done, many 
having their business matters at home demanding their at- 
tention, and they had no idea of remaining for that length 
of time. About nine o'clock we were ordered to fall in^, 
and having taken my place in line, Shaffer^ came to me 
and said, " Your place is in the rear." " What is that for ?" 
I asked. " Sergeants always are in the rear of the com- 
pany," was the reply, so I took my station accordingly. 
The names of the non-coms, were then read to us, viz. : 
Sergeants Smith, Vanderslice,' Shaffer,^ Pennypacker 
and Keeley.^ 

The Corporals I have forgotten, though Lloyd, Cas- 
well,'* and Sower'^ were among them. We then mai'ched 
out to Camp Curtin, and were taken to one corner of the 

^ Hamilton Vanderslice. * V. N. Shaffer. 

■'' Jerome Keeley. * J. Ralston CaswelL 

* Samuel Sower. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 315 

camp, very near to the railroad, and by the side of a 
small tree which stood there. A wheat field was within 
a few rods, and it answered the same purpose for which 
an out-house is used generally. On the opposite side of 
the railroad, and some distance off was a farm house 
where we got water, went to wash, and sometimes bought 
milk. It had also attached to it, a fine orchard, the shade 
of whose trees affbrded a pleasant spot to loll and rest 
upon. About noon we were furnished with wedge tents, 
and Lloyd, Shaffer, Keeley, Andy and myself having con- 
cluded to bunk together, chose one, put it up, and floored it 
with boards. At that time, there were few companies in 
camp, but they soon commenced to flock in rapidly. A 
company numbering one hundred and twenty men came 
up from Phoenixville in the evening. They comprised, 
principally, the men and bosses employed by the iron 
company, and as the result proved were of great disad- 
vantage to us. Joe Johnson, John Denithorne, &c., were 
the officers. Many of them had no desire to go into ser- 
vice, but came up simply on account of the excitement, 
and because they disliked to remain at home amid so gen- 
eral a movement. 

During the day, the subject of being sworn into 
the service of the United States had been discussed 
among our men with various expressions of opinion. 
Some seemed willing to accept it, some were indignant 
thinking they had been deceived, and others appeared 
only anxious to back out entirely. The only alternative 
ofi"ered was the " existing emergency "or "six months." 
The latter was a long time under the circumstances, 
and the croakers among us said the former might last 
until the war was over, as, if we were once sworn 
in, the government could keep us as long as it chose. 
Bam. Cornett and others who had been very active in 



316 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL fiKETCHES. 

forming the company, and eager to show their patriotism 
and spirit, went home, giving as a reason that the hay 
crop must be attended to or some similar excuse. 

Their course, it seems to me, was extremely reprehen- 
sible ; as they should have thought of their busine-ss mat- 
ters before they left home, and to ray certain knowledge 
several who saw these prominent citizens, so earnest in 
offering themselves and so ready to withdraw, were 
considerably influenced by it in their future movements. 
We had already commenced drawing rations, and had 
made our first trial of " hard tack," " salt horse," pork, 
&c., and were surprised to find them much more agree- 
able than we had expected. At our first meal we had 
salt beef, and after eating for some time, one of the party 
expressed his satisfaction at the good quality of the meat, 
which was echoed by all the rest, except Lloyd, who did 
not appear to relish it much, and innocently inquired, 
'Did yours smell bad?" We told him that it did not, 
and upon examining his portion, discovered he had re- 
ceived an offensive spoiled piece, which he was uncom- 
plainingly endeavoring to force down. "Well," he said, 
" I thought I was in the army, and had to eat it." with 
such an air of innocence and resignation, that it threw us 
all into a roar of laughter. He has'nt heard the last of 
it yet. 

In the morning and evening we w^ere drilled pretty 
severely by Lieut. McOord who understood the tactics 
thoroughly. After morning drill, Andy, IJoyd and myself 
went with the Captain and Second-Lieutenant into Harris- 
burg to see Governor Curtin upon some business. At the 
Capitol we met Sing. Asheufelter who accompanied us. 
While there we took the opportunity of "drawing" some 
envelopes from the Governor's private box. Afterward 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOKM. 317 

we four walked about town for a time, when Sing, left us 
promising to come out to camp in the afternoon. 

Returning we stopped in a confectionery and bought 
three small pies which we were devouring as we walked 
along the street, when we overheard some benevolent old 
lady in spectacles who eyed us attentively remark : 
" Poor fellows ! how they enjoy them." The idea of ap- 
plying the epithet to a set of fellows who were only two 
days from home, as if they were suffering from starvation, 
seemed rather comical. However, the old lady displayed 
a sympathising heart. A little fellow sang out in the 
popular slang " How are you pies /" By night the camp 
ground was nearly filled up with tents and the room for 
drill was necessarily curtailed. During the night it rained 
and we were consequently somewhat chilly. Another great 
difficulty in the way of sleep was that our tent was only 
a few yards from the Pennsylvania Railroad and on ac- 
count of the extraordinary amount of business, trains 
were running upon it continually day and night. As they 
approached the camp the engineer commenced to blow his 
whistle, '^and the shriek could be heard at a distance first, 
then rapidly coming nearer and growing fiercer until op- 
posite the tent, when the sound had accumulated to such 
a pitch, it seemed like the unearthly yells of some foul 
fiend, or the dying shrieks and groans of some deep 
chested Titan giving vent to intense agony. Lloyd would 
jump straight up from his blanket with " Damn, I 
thought it was the Devil." 

(Saturday, June 20th.) We arose as usual at 
day-break, and as there was some difficulty in get- 
ting the men to go for water Lloyd and myself volun- 
teered and filled the kettles at the farm house. After 
some battalion drill in which I, as a sergeant, cut a 
very awkward figure, finding it almost impossible to keep 



318 III I'OItlCAl, ANI) I'.KKIKAI'IIICAI, SK K If ;il KS. 

from L!;f'Miii;^ i!Ui<jl<'il up, Ijloyd, ^S^l^^, Andy juid inyHclf 
a;^(iiii Weill. 111(0 lIiUTiKliiif^';, ;iiid (•.I'oHsiu^; over I lie t,oM<T- 
h\<^ woodfii Ididnrc vvliudi Hpiuis 1,1 u' Susqind HI 11 iiM, (•liiiihcd 
U|> iJio Vi'vy hI,('('|) hill on llu; wcslcrM hank ol that; river 
upon which iJioy were, Itiisily ('ngugcd ihrowini!; up forli- 
floiiionH. A iiirgf^ uiiiuhcr of men wero omjiloyed and 
1,1 ic plan of opera.! ions wa,H, a,il<'r placing a, line ol hognlieads 
lillcil will: gra,V(d loi'ming llw cncloHiiie, Jo di^ a, (l(M'p 
dil.cli on I he ()ul,Mid(i und hardv Iho ea,rth up ii,ij;ainHl, LIkuu. 
Till- hack of iJic fori toward the rivor aud town torini- 
iial,('d Oil a. vci'y wlcep hank in somo places like a, jiroci- 
pico. We exa,miiie(| the whole area, very a,i,l,enl,ively and 
<lioue;hl, il (piil,(; a, pleiiHjinl, pla('.(^, IJkju^Ii 1 caiiu^ l.o a 
(lillV^reiit coiuduHiou it week or two iifLcM'ward. Upon 
1(>aviu<' itHine;t took tlio earn for CarliHle, aud we returned 
to eaiiip. I Miring oiii- aliHence a, dispatch lia.d \)eo.n re- 
ceived from the riiociiix lion (!oiiipany, telling tluur (em- 
ployees not to he sworn into the IJ. tS. service, and if Ih^^y 
were they would not he pa,id IIk; promised hounty aud 
might lose their positions ,al home. Such a courwe of 
action alter making hona, lide engagements a,n<l hy means 
of them inducing uumi to go, then to veer arouiul, ])reak 
tiuiir own promises, and oppose? tluMiccomplishment of the 
very purpos(( for which they Htarled, was, to say tlie least 
of it, exceedingly small ( lovernoi* ( !url,iii had also heen 
in ca.mp and made a speoi^h, saying that it waa nocesnary 
to bo Hworn into the government service in order to re- 
ceive equipUKUits, clothing and ))ay, that it was a diHgrace 
(() rennsyl va,nia, that while New York regiments were 
liiirrymg towa,i(l the line, her own sons w<'r(! dehiying 
from a mere matter of form, and that Ik? phedged his word 
they should he kciiI home as soon a,s the emergency waH 
over. Home who heard him were salisHed. Ivalston 
Caswell and Tom. Iveddv )oiiied (he I'oltstown (Company. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 319 

John Denithorne's men took a vote upon the subject, and 
only two of them, Sam. and Charlie Milligan, were 
willing to remain. Colonel Jennings came down to see 
the Captain with the object of getting our own company 
into his regiment, which was then being formed, and 
all who were ready numbering forty -five marched up to 
the quarters of the mustering officer to be sworn in, 
but to our great mortification after waiting for a time 
we were taken back to the tents. Lieutenant McCord 
then told us that with those men we could only retain 
our Lieutenants, and would lose our Captain, to which 
he and all the rest objected. Toward evening Denithorne's 
company and a large number of ours left for home. 

(Sunday.) Early in the morning two or three of us went 
over to see Owen Eachus, who was orderly sergeant of a 
company of students from Lewisburg. The next com- 
pany to us on the ground was from a college at Gettys- 
burg and I struck up quite an acquaintance with one 
young fellow who was guarding the officers' tent, I will 
have more to tell of them hereafter. Sometime in the 
'day Colonel Jennings sent word that we could retain our 
officers with fifty men and we made desperate exertions 
to raise the required number, calling the roll frequently 
and endeavoring to hunt up recruits through camp. It 
was all in vain however, as we never got above forty- 
eight. At noon Mr. Ashenfelier^ left for Phoenix and 
I sent a letter home by him. Colonel Ramsey arrived 
from the Iron Company with another order recalling 
positively their hands, which was read aloud and 
completely destroyed what little hope was left. Cyrus 
Nyce and Web. Davis from the Pottstown company came 
over to our tents and tried to persuade some of us to go 

^ Henry Ashenfelter. 



320 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

with them, as they only numbered seventy-five men and! 
had some fears of losing their Captain, whom they repre- 
sented to be the most desirable kind of a man. 

(Monday). As there was no poesibihty of our raising 
a company, the only choice * left to those of us who 
still remained was to go home or join some other 
party and nearly all, disliking the latter alternative, 
and concluding that having held out as long as- 
there was any chance of effecting an organization 
they had done all that could be expected of them, 
determined to return in the first train. I was in a 
dilemma. I disliked the idea of going home in that 
manner, considering it dishonorable and discreditable in 
itself and dreading jeers which I knew must be endured 
and to a certain extent would be merited. I also had a 
strong inclination to try what a solder's life was like and 
to know something of it from experience. But in order 
to do this, it was necessary to bid farewell to my friends 
and place myself for an indefinite length of time in a 
company of strangers, among whom I would be of no- 
importance whatever, with the prospect of having the 
roughest duties to perform, which I knew would be 
doubly unpleasant from being galling to my pride. I de- 
liberated upon the matter for some time but finally con- 
cluded to remain, and having made my determination, 
I felt more free. While I was thinking over it, Joe. Rennard 
came to me and said that if I would remain he would do 
so too. I afterward told liira what conclusion I had come 
to and we agreed to stick together. A man by the name 
of Combe went with the Gettysburg students ; Caswell 
and Reddy as mentioned before had joined the Pottstown 
company ; and now David R. Landis, John Rhodes, John 
B. Ford and Richard Renshaw, alias " Tucker" expressed 
their intention of going with us. After some consultation,. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 321 

we considered it best to unite with the Pottstowners, and 
having collected our baggage we carried it up to their 
tents, which were just inside the gate and were kindly 
received by Lieutenant Richards who told us we would 
he mustered in sometime during the afternoon. I was- 
very favorably impressed with that gentleman and had 
no reason afterward to change my opinion. Rennard and 
I concluded to " bunk" with Reddy and Caswell, or 
" Roily" as we called him, while the others put up a tent 
for themselves. After depositing our blankets, Joe^ and I 
went into Harrisburg for the purpose of bidding farewell" 
to those " homeward bound." We found them at the- 
depot and Lloyd and Andy walked up with us to the- 
Capitol grounds where we sat and talked until it was- 
time for us to return. I felt more sorry to part with them 
than anything else. On our way back we met Chal- 
fant pretty thoroughly tight, and he invited us very 
cordially to go into a tavern close at hand and take a 
parting drink. Upon my refusal, he informed me I would 
get over that nonsense before I was long away. We 
reached camp in time for dinner, which consisted of rice 
so miserably cooked and badly burned that I could not 
eat a bit of it. I discovered immediately the difference 
between our Phoenix cook and the present one, who was a- 
dirty, filthy old villain^ entirely unacquainted with his- 
business. The company was made up of three parties, 
numbering in all over eighty men, of whom eight were 
from Phoenixville, about a dozen from Pine Grove, and 
the remainder from Pottstown. The officers were as fol- 
lows, viz. : Captain, George Rice, who had been married 
very recently and was called from his wedding tour to- 
take command of the company ; First Lieutenant, Henry 

^ Rennard. *I now ask his pardon 



322 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Potts ; Second Lieutenant, Mark H, Richards ; Sergeants, 
Dyer who did not understand the drill and whose only 
recommendation was his physical power, Sheetz a noble 
fellow who had already received two honorable discharges 
from the service, and who was then suffering from the 
effects of a ball which at Fredericksburg entered his 
breast and came out below the right shoulder, Lessig a 
one-eyed man to whom I took a strong dislike from the 
first time I saw him, and Meigs^ and Bert. Lessig ; Cor- 
porals Evans, ^ Davis, ^ Lloyd,* MacDonald,^ &c. Through 
the liberality of the citizens, the company had come from 
Pottstown thoroughly armed, clothed and equipped, and 
on that account was made Provost Guard of the camp. 
About five o'clock we went to the mustering officer, were 
each called by name, told to take off our hats and 
hold up our right hands, and were sworn " lo serve the 
'Government of the United States during the existing 
emergency against all enemies whatsoever ;" a remarkably 
short and simple ceremony — but five minutes before we 
were our own men, now we belonged to Uncle Sam. 

That affair was scarcely concluded, when I heard the 
lieutenant say, " Corporal Evans, I guess these men 
want something to do, take them," and so we went off 
under charge of Evans, to assist in putting up the Union 
Tabernacle Tent, which had just arrived in the care of 
some reverend gentleman who applied to the different 
captains for a detail to erect it. We happened to be just 
in time, and worked energetically for about an hour at 
driving stakes and pulling ropes. Our first military duty 
should certainly have portended something good. As 

' William G. Meigs. ' Miller D. Evans. 

' D. Webster Davis. * John S. Lloyd. 

* Charles W. MacDonald. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 323 

Holly had the floor of his tent covered with straw, we 
slept very comfortably that night. 

(Tuesday, June 23d). Early in the morning, we 
received our clothing, (fee, I drew a canteen, haver- 
sack, tin plate, knife and fork, blouse, shoes or 
"gunboats," blanket, cap and pants, and was fortunate 
enough to get pretty well fitted, with the exception 
of the cap, which was too small. Many of the men 
took overcoats (furnished by Pottstown) and drawers, 
but expecting the weather would be warm, I considered 
them superfluous The former would have been very use- 
ful to me afterward, for being hurried away, I did not 
succeed in procuring a gum blanket as I intended. Of 
the clothing which I brought up with me, I gave the 
boots and coat to Reddy, and sent the remainder home by 
a young man, who was returning, and kindly volunteered 
to take them. 

Soon after, I witnessed the performance of one of 
the unpleasant duties connected with the service. A 
large and powerfully built cavalryman had imbibed 
enough whiskey to make him crazy, and creating 
some disturbance in camp, he was brought up and put in 
the guard-house. There he swore terribly at the idea of 
confining him, a man who had fought on the Peninsula, 
and becoming excited, kicked the boards off the side of 
the house, pitched the stove out of the door, and mashed 
up things generally. They finally were compelled to knock 
him down and tie him, and he lay there and raved until 
he became sober. Scheetz had charge of him, and I 
congratulated myself upon having nothing at all to do 
with it. 

Being ordered to fall in, we took our places in rank, and 
marched over to the armory to get Springfield muskets in- 
stead of those which the company then had. As I was one of 



324 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the party sent into the building to cany out the arms, I to'.'k 
care to reserve for noyself a gun which was in first rate 
order. I was so green, however, concerning matters of 
that kind that I had to call upon Reddy to explain the 
method of fastening the bayonet ; which had rather a 
complicated arrangement. I also secured accoutrements 
which were furnished with a strap to go over the shoulder, 
a great advantage when there are forty rounds of cart- 
ridges in the box. Most of the others had only a belt 
around the waist. Before breaking ranks, the captain said 
that after dinner, we would have to take the old muskets- 
into Harrisburg, and as the day was quite warm, and the 
roads very dusty, I determined to count myself out. 
When the time arrived, the one-eyed sergeant finding me 
out of my place, I explained to him that there was no 
necessity for my marching into town, as I had no gun to 
take, but he quickly overcame that difficulty by sugges- 
ting that I could carry the gun of some one who was then 
on guard, and so in I went with the rest. After storing 
the arms in a factory, the Captain gave us liberty for a 
half an hour, upon all promising to meet him at the ex- 
piration of that time. Rhodes and I went down the 
main street, and I purchased a shirt from a rascally Har- 
risburg skin flint, who seeing my private's uniform, gave 
me a great deal more impudence than I would have borne,, 
had I not been under the necessity of getting the article. 
Upon returning to camp, we stacked arms in front of the 
tents, and had scarcely time to carry our accoutrements- 
inside, when I heard the voice of the Captain shouting, 
" Fall in, fall in quickly, men," so hastily fastening them 
on again, I took my place in rank, near the right of the 
company. The Captain cut off a squad of about twenty, 
ordered them to " riglit face, double-quick, march," and off 
we hurried toward a crowd collected about the centre of 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 325 

tlje grounds, not knowing what was the matter. We 
soon learned however. A rowdy from Philadelphia in 
one of the companies, getting into a quarrel, had killed a 
man with a butcher knife, and a big fat peliceman of 
Wra. B. Mann's posse, who on account of his size was 
■called " the infant," endeavoring to arrest him, the fellow 
again made use of his knife, and by two or three 
wicked lunges, compelled the policeman to withdraw. 
The provost guard were sent for, and when we reached 
the scene of disturbance, he was shouting at the top of 
his voice "Co. C. — Leap, Frogs — Leap," and had collected 
about him a number of his adherents, who expressed their 
•determination of not permitting him to be arrested. 

We were brought to a " charge bayonets, forward 
march," and though they swore, hissed and jeered con- 
.siderabl}^ we succeeded in dispersing them without a 
great deal of difficulty. We then formed a hollow 
square, he was placed in the centre, and in this way we 
proceeded to Harrisburg, followed by about seventy-five 
roughs, cursing and hooting at us. He made a good bit 
of resistance, and swore that he would never be taken 
■ there alive. I was stationed right behind him, and sev- 
eral times he pushed with force enough against my 
bayonet to make it pierce his clothing, but that seemed 
to satisfy him. I must acknowledge that I felt exceed- 
ingly unpleasant, as I was continually afraid he would be 
fool enough to endeavor to break through, and we would 
be compelled to bayonet him, something which would 
have put me to a most severe trial. Our one-eyed ser- 
geant kept calling out, " stick him, boys, stick him," and 
I felt so provoked that I could have stuck him with quite 
as much satisfaction. After reaching Harrisburg. we 
gave him into the custody of the police, and T have not 
heard anything of "Smitty," as his friends called him, 



326 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

since. We returned to camp covered with dust from our 
two tramps into town, and I obtained permission to go 
down to the canal and wash, which added very much to 
my convenience. 

Right beside our tents, was encamped a small 
body of Milroy's men, who had come up to Har- 
risburg with some of that general's baggage trains, hav- 
ing escaped after the battle of Winchester, in which his 
troops were so effectually scattered. Their drill, and 
especially the exercises with the bayonet -were watched 
by us greenhorns with the greatest admiration. In the 
evening, a rumor was spread abroad that the rebels were 
approaching in large numbers, and that all the citizens 
had been ordered to report themselves for duty within a 
few hours. It created some excitement, but was without 
foundation. What gave to it some appearance of truth, 
was that the Captain sent knapsacks around to all the 
company, and we were ordered to be ready to march in 
the morning at 6 o'clock. 

(Wednesday.) Through some change in the arrange- 
ment, we were awakened about 3 A. M., and sup- 
plied with three days' rations of hard tack, bread 
and boiled meat, which were stowed away in our 
haversacks. I was somewhat anxious to know how loncj 
that medium sized piece of meat was expected to last, and 
was informed "until you get some more;" which as it 
happened turned out to be longer than I want to be de- 
prived of animal food often. In the haste and excite- 
ment of packing up, Reddy took the opportunity of ex- 
changing his and Caswell's blankets for mine and Rennard's, 
as the latter were composed of better material and woven 
more tightly. He was a great rogue, but he seemed to 
have a genuine affection for " Roily," ran his errands, 
brought him water, made his bed, and took care of him 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 327 

generally. Roily was about five feet eight inches high^ 
and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, so that he was 
not capable of much exertion, at least it was very fatigu- 
ing to him. I was in a great hurry to have everything 
strapped on, and remember feeling quite uneasy from fear 
of not being ready in time. Before we had moved many 
times, however, I found that the danger of being left be- 
hind was very slight, and learned to take my ease in 
preparation. We waited that morning about two hours 
for orders, but finally they came, and one company after- 
another left their tents, and marching out to the side of 
the camp toward the town formed in line. First came- 
Co. A. the Gettysburg students, of whom I have spoken 
before; then ourselves, Co. F. ; next Co. D., Captain 
Pell ; and the other seven companies I never became 
much acquainted with. The regiment as we soon learned 
was the "26th P. V. M.," and was commanded by the- 
following named ofiicers : Colonel Wm. W. Jennings^ 
an intimate friend of Gov. Curtin, was a fine looking 
man of about twenty-eight years of age, and when the 
war broke out had charge of a factory in Harrisburg.. 
He then entered the service, and afterward was colonel 
of a regiment of nine months' men in the army of the 
Potomac. Every one liked him, because he understood 
his business, acted toward his men as an ofiicer should,, 
and from former experience, knew how to take care of 
them. I never heard a single word of complaint against 
him, and I think he possessed the respect of every man 
in the regiment. On more than one occasion, he ex- 
hibited considerable military ability. Lieutenant Colonel" 
Jenkins was from Hanover, a man who was said to have 
obtained his position by some management, and who had 
in a wonderful degree the faculty of rendering himself 



328 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

particularly disagreeable..^ He knew little or nothing 
about the drill. Major Greenawalt was a large, stout man, 
with a deep bass voice. He had come up to Harrisburg as 
a captain of a company, and some years previously, I was 
told, he made two overland trips to California on foot. 
During all the time we were out, he refused to have a 
horse, and marched with the men. There was something 
about him which drew the admiration of all, probably his 
imposing appearance and manly attributes increased by 
his reputation for great physical strength. It was re- 
ported that he was more than a match in a fisticuff for 
any other two men in Lebanon, his native place. Such 
a character must necessarily command respect upon occa- 
sions, and in times, when courage and muscular power are 
the qualities most likely to be required. The Adjutant^ 
was a young fellow from Co. A., who had a clear ringing 
voice, and pleasant agreeable manner. I saw very little 
of him excepting on dress parade. The Sergeant Major^ 
was from our own company. 

After getting our places in the regiment there was 
another delay of more than an hour on account of the cars 
not being ready, and finding that my knapsack and 
■other articles were somewhat of a weight upon the 
shoulders, I followed the example of many others and 
lay down upon my back, supporting the knapsack on the 
ground. I frequently afterward took the same position 
with less anxiety about soiling my breeches and it ans- 
wered the purpose very well for a time, but as the sup- 
port was under the shoulders and the head extended over 
with nothing upon which to rest, the neck soon became 
tired and painful. I was not long in learning another 

' He was afterward killed while bravely fighting before Peters- 
burg, Va. 

' Harry W. McKnight. » John W. Royer. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 329 

way of resting, viz. : to place the butt of the musket upon 
the ground behind rae while standing, and the muzzle 
underneath the lower part of the knapsack. 

There was a o-reat deal of curiosity to know 
where we were going, but all we could learn from 
the officers was that there would be a march of about 
ten miles before we reached our place of destination. I 
was very desirous of taking a trip down the Cumberland 
Valley, and after getting on the cars, we watched care- 
fully the direction they took. They moved slowly to and 
through Harrisburg, over the railroad bridge across the 
Susquehanna, then a short distance down the Cumberland 
Valley road, again up the river, and after thus baffling 
about finally started off on the road to York, amid the 
cheering of all on board. We travelled along very slowly, 
some times stopping for a half an hour or more, and then 
creeping on at such a snail's pace that it was very tire- 
i-'ome. I remember very distinctly in what a glorious 
humor we all were, without any anxiety except to reach 
the end of our journey. At nearly every house which we 
passed the women came to the windows and waved their 
handkerchiefs, and then all set up such a cheering, 
hurrahing, and tigering that it was enough to deafen one. 
At several places on the route we passed squads and com- 
panies of Colonel W. B. Thomas' twentieth regiment and 
their camps looked so pleasant upon the green, that the 
idea passed through my mind of how nice it would be tO' 
be stationed in some copse or grove for a few weeks and 
guard a bridge or something of the kind, then return 
home and let those Phoenix fellows know what they 
missed by not remaining. From York, where we waited 
some time and saw a large number of paroled prisoners 
from different States who were then going to camp, we 

departed for Gettysburg bv way of Hanover. 

' 21 



330 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

After leaving York I noticed that the country seemed 
to be exceedingly dry, and the crops, which were then 
nearly ready to harvest, were generally very poor. As 
there was one of our companies from Hanover, a large 
crowd of men and women from the neighborhood had 
collected and were patiently awaiting our arrival. They 
had not heard and consequently could tell us nothing 
concerning any rebels. The barns in that section are 
all of the same red color which predominates so strongly 
in Montgomery and Berks counties and evidences the 
Dutch taste. 

At that place the train was divided and a portion 
of the regiment was sent ahead, while we kept several 
miles in the rear. Nothing of importance occurred until 
we reached a point about seven miles from Gettysburg, 
when we learned that those ahead had met with an ac- 
cident. We slowly approached as near as was safe, and 
there getting off the cars were marched to a wood on the 
right of the track where we found the other part of the 
regiment, and stacked our arms by companies in regular 
order. Leaving our traps by the muskets, all hastened 
over to see what had happened. It appeared that an old 
woman had been driving a cow along the top of a high 
embankment where the road crossed a deep gully and 
small creek. The old woman got out of the way when 
the cars came up, but the cow ran along the track, was 
caught about midway and thrown over the bank dead. 
The cars were forced from the track by the concussion but 
fortunately kept their course almost parallel with the 
rails, bumping over the sills until they got beyond the 
gaily, and there all the track was torn up and they badly 
broken were piled together. Some of the men were some- 
what bruised but none seriously — Combe, in company A, 
was one of the number. Had they gone over the edge of 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 331 

the bank which was not more than two feet off, it 
would have been terrible. As it ha])pened I presume 
it was an exceedingly fortunate accident as had it not 
■occurred, we would probably have proceeded that night on 
to Gashtown into the very teeth of the rebel army and 
s^orne of us perhaps been hurt. I went down into the 
ravine to look at the cow which was very old and 
miserably poor. I pitied the old woman who was stand- 
ing there crying, while a number of our fellows among 
whom was Sergeant Meigs, had out their knives and 
were already busily engaged cutting off steaks wherever 
any meat could be found. After he had finished Meigs 
offered me his knife which I declined, feeling a good bit 
of hesitation about making use of it in that way, when 
he told me I would be glad to get meat like that before a 
great while. It was then about 4 P. M. In the evening 
we were drilled a little by the Orderly who knew nothing 
about it, and the cook, old Mike, made some coffee. Soon 
after dark, Rennard and I prepared our sleeping ac- 
commodations for the night and putting one blanket 
iipon the ground, the other over us, and the knapsacks 
under our heads, we got along finely. It was the 
first night we passed without shelter and was spent 
very comfortably. At first I was ver}'- uneasy about 
bugs getting in my ears, but soon became accustomed 
to it and had no further annoyance from that source. 
(Thursday.) It is a great satisfaction to get up in the 
morning and feel that you are all ready for the day, with- 
out so much trouble of preparation, dressing, tying cra- 
vats, &c. We arose very early, and immediately started 
for water. There was a house and a spring very close at 
hand, but the water had such a bad taste, as to be almost 
unfit for drinking, and we went nearly a half a mile to a 
brick house for some, which was better. There were also 



332 III8T0RICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

some cherries at the latter place, which did not remain a 
great while. In the morning, we were drilled by the 
Captain. There was a little incident connected with it, 
which I will mention, as it startled me for a moment. 
We were going through the exercises, had been brought 
to a "charge," and were standing in that position when 
the Captain suddenly seizing my bayonet, threw his whole 
weight against it, and nearly overthrew me. I supposed 
he was angry at the time about something, but soon per- 
ceived he was only trying me, so after that when he came 
around, I quietly braced myself, and imagine it would 
have been rather a dangerous experiment to make a second 
attempt. During the day, a large number of country 
wagons came into camp from the vicinity of Gettysburg, 
with pies, &c., for Co. A. As that company was always 
inquired for so particularly, they were henceforth styled 
the " Pie Company." We had become known as the "Leap 
Frogs," from an incident which I have previously narrated. 
Our fellows, however, soon began to look out for the 
wagons, and going some distance to meet them, would on 
being asked what company they belonged to, reply " Co. 
A.," and before those for whom it was intended knew 
anything of the matter, carry off the spoil, leaving the 
countryman to suppose " it was all right." Corporal 
Lloyd who had been in service before and understood the 
ropes, was one of the most active in that kind of forag- 
ing, and he also " drew " from a farmer's house, a large 
pot full of butter, which had been put away for winter 
use, and bringing it into camp, retailed it out to the men. 
I invested to the extent of five cents, without asking any 
questions. 

During the day, the farmers told us it was reported that 
the rebr-ls were advancing in large force, and that con- 
siderable numbers of them were in the woods and hills 



I 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 333 

about Cashtown. Some of the men were a little uneasy, 
and Ford said that he came down to fight, but did not 
expect to be sent off with a few hundred men alone to 
fight thousands of rebels. My own opinion was that 
rumor had greatly exaggerated the number, and probably 
a few small bodies of cavalry, such as had previously 
come into the State, were scouting around, and if we 
could only get near enough to them, we would easily 
scatter or capture the whole party. The only difficulty 
which presented itself, was the readiness with which, 
being on horseback, they could elude us infantry. There- 
fore, feeling very unconcerned myself, I took delight in 
playing upon the fears of some of the others, and was 
sure to tell Ford all the wonderful stories which I heard. 
Some one brought into camp a copy of the Harrisburg 
Telegraph, and among other items, we were much amused 
to find that " General Couch had thrown a large body of 
troops in the neighborhood of Gettysburg to outflank the 
rebels." 

About the middle of the afternoon, a strong wind arose, 
and then there was every appearance of rain. The men 
commenced to erect their shelter tents, and Rennard and 
I, after watching how the operation was performed, put 
up our own upon the outskirts of the wood. The modus 
operandi is very simple, and I will here describe it as well 
as I can. The tent is formed of two pieces of thick muslin 
about 4i feet long and three wide, each of which is sup- 
plied with a rope, and they are arranged so as to button 
together. When they are thus buttoned, there is a rope 
at each end of the tent, and if two trees can be found the 
proper distance apart, nothing remains to be done but tie 
the ropes tightly around them at a suitable height, and 
secure the four corners of the tent with wooden pins. 
Then by digging a small gutter to drain off the water, 



334 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

the work is completed. If no such trees can he founds 
two upright stakes and a cross-piece or ridge pole are- 
required. These the neighboring fences generally supply. 
The latter is much the better method, as the tent is 
raore firm. I have frequently seen them improvised by 
thrusting two muskets, bayonets downwanl, into the earth 
and tying the ropes around the locks. When properly 
fixed and well stretched, they turn an ordinary shower, 
but heavy and beating rains will force their way through 
to some extent. When the stakes are the i-ight height 
there is just about room enough inside to sit up in the 
centre without touching the top, and lying down cross- 
wise, to stretch out at full length. When it is permitted, 
it is much preferable for five persons to go together, as it 
gives a great deal more room in the tent, and the fifth 
piece answers to cover up whichever end is exposed to- 
the rain. After getting ours fixed as well as we could 
at the time, we spread one of the blankets down on the 
inside, and lying upon it awaited the rain. Roily was. 
guarding the baggage at the cars, and Reddy, who did 
not consider it worth while to put up a tent, scoured 
around camp, and every once in a while came to us with 
a loaf of bread or something of that sort, which he left 
in our charge. Where he procured them I cannot telL 
About eight o'clock in the evening, after we had arranged 
matters as comfortably as possible for the night, Sergeant 
Meigs made his appearance and said, " Pennypacker get 
ready for picket duty." As there was every prospect of 
a heavy rain, I was not particularly pleased with the 
order, but having nothing to do but make the best of it, 
I agreed with Rennard to take his overcoat and leave my 
blanket in its place. So putting on my accoutrement* 
over the coat, and charging him to take care of ray haver- 
sack and knapsack, I took my Springfield musket and 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. OOi 



starte<l for the place where I saw the others forming in 
line. About half way I met Lieutenant Richards, who 
said it was necessary to take everything along, and as 
there was but little time to spare, he went back and as- 
sisted me in strapping them on. My blanket was in the 
knapsack, and in my hurry, I forgot to take it out, so that 
Rennard was left without either. The detail numbered 
one hundred and twenty men, under command of Lieu- 
tenant Mowry, and I thought then it was rather a large 
picket party. Of the twelve from our company, I only 
remember beside myself, Gyrus Nyce and Sergeant Meigs, 
who acted as Orderly 

We started off on the road to Gettysburg, looking into 
every thicket for a picket station, and imagining that 
every wood in the distance must form part of the line, 
but one after another was passed, and still we did not stop. 
About two miles from camp, we halted at a tavern, 
but it was only to get some water in the canteens. We 
there saw some of the outer pickets, among them the 
" one-eyed sergeant," and after leaving them, we knew 
that picketting was not the object for which we were 
sent. It soon commenced to rain, but not very rapidly. 
That was my first experience in marching, and as the 
Lieutenant appeared to be in great haste, we moved very 
quickly, and it was not long before I began to feel ex- 
ceedingly warm and disagreeable. Those seven miles 
seemed almost indefinitely prolonged. At last, however, 
Gettysburg was in sight, and before entering the town, 
the Lieutenant made us a short speech, saying that he 
wanted us to go through the streets quietly and in ranks, 
and that he had been informed, supper and comfortable 
quarters for the night were already provided for us, so 
we began to think we were more fortunate than those 
who were left in camp. 



336 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

We marched some distance into town, and stopped be- 
fore a hotel, when the Lieutenant after giving orders for 
no one to go out of ranks, disappeared. It was raining, 
we were tired and anxious to be disencumbered of our 
loads, but we waited patiently for his return, in expecta- 
tion of that supper, and speculating upon the sleeping ac- 
commodations. Quite a number of people collected about 
us, of whom a large proportion were men, and they seemed 
very slightly discomposed by the state of affairs in the 
neighborhood. I inquired of one little fellow who was 
running around talking of rebels, " what a rebel was," 
and received for a reply, a " black abolitionist." I en- 
deavored to convince him that 1 was a black abolitionist, 
and told him to tell his father so, but the idea was evi- 
dently so preposterous to him that I believe he concluded 
I was joking. The lieutenant could not be found, and 
the men began to drop off one after another in search of 
places to rest, until none but Doc. Nyce and myself were 
left. In order to be near at hand, we went across the 
street to a stone door step, where we sat down, and both 
fell asleep. After a time something awoke us, and con- 
cluding we would have to take care of ourselves, we went 
inside the tavern, and lying down in the entry with a 
number of others, secured a second nap from which we 
were aroused about one o'clock by the command " Fall in 
men." The lieutenant had returned, and upon getting 
our places, we marched around to a restaurant, were 
supplied with a piece of bread and a tin-cup full of hot 
coffee, and then proceeded to the depot upon the plat- 
form of which we passed the remainder of the night. It 
was an extremely filthy place, but sheltered us from the 
rain. I never knew certainly what caused the prolonged 
absence of the Lieutenant, but it was reported that when 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 337 

we readied Gettysburg he was ordered by Major Haller^ 
who controlled operations there, to advance to Caslitown 
about eight miles distant and that, doubting the propriety 
of obeying, he had hired a horse and ridden back to see 
Colonel Jennings who protested against such a course and 
succeeded in preventing it. Professor Jacobs in his 
"Notes on the Battle of Gettysburg," says that we 
were a hundred picked men detailed as bushwhackers 
or riflemen to be sent to the mountains at Cash town, 
and that had the intention been carried out we would 
have met with almost certain destruction. 
;'l (Friday, June 26th.) In the morning it was raining in 
torrents. Some of the men went to the hotels and bought 
their breakfasts, but I confined myself to my haversack 
principally because I was fearful of being absent when 
ordered to march. At that time I was very careful not to 
disobey a command, but I afterward discovered it was the 
better plan to provide for myself and leave to the officers 
the responsibility of having their orders fulfilled. I believe 
there are no circumstances in which a man's welfare de- 
pends more upon his disposition and ability to take care 
of No. 1. The remainder of the regiment came up in 
cars about 9 A. M., and I hastened to return Rennard's 
overcoat to him feeling unpleasantly from having deprived 
him of it, but of course it was impossible for either of 
us to have foreseen what occurred. He gave to me 
my piece of shelter tent, wet and consequently heavy, 
which I carried tied upon the top of the knapsack. We 
waited then for some time, and many made use of it in 
scattering over town and hunting up something to eat. 
About ten o'clock we started on the Chambersburg road 
a,nd marched some three miles from town to a wood 

' Granville 0. Haller of the regular army. 



338 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

which stood a short distance to the right, perliaps seventv- 
five yards from the road. We filed across the intervening 
field and were taken to a low spot of ground within the 
wood, where instead of stacking arras we placed them 
butts upward, and with the bayonets thrust into the 
ground in order to keep the powder from becoming wet. 
The regiment was all in one line and was ordered to pitch 
tents, each man opposite his own musket, and within a 
certain limited number of feet from the row. It was a 
very unfavorable place for a camp as the ground in con- 
sequence of the heavy rain was almost in the condition of 
a swamp and the feet sank into the water at every step. 
We were already pretty thoroughly soaked, and on looking 
around I thought there was a prospect of our remaining 
so for some time. However, Rhodes, Landis and I who 
chanced to be together, selected a spot beneath a little 
hawthorn tree as a comparatively eligible location for our 
tent, one end of which could be fastened to a limb. While 
they buttoned the pieces together, I went to the fence ta 
get a stake for the other end, and returning with it saw a 
number of men, coming from the lower portion of the 
wood with arms full of shingles. 

Perceiving at once the advantage of having them for a 
floor, I left the stake at the tree and ran with all speed in 
the direction whence they were carried. The first thing I 
met was a creek which I cleared with a long spring and 
found a pile of shingles within a short distance of the 
bank. I lugged over one load, but before getting back 
with the second Landis had discovered a supply in some 
other quarter and they had enough already for two 
layers. The tent was up, but so loose that it swayed 
about; the shingles took up considerable of the small 
space inside, and our knapsacks half of the remainder ; 
Landis was jammed in on one side with his back pressed 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. SS^ 

against the muslin and bis feet covered with mud sticking 
out; Rhodes was fixed nearly in the same way on the 
other and 1 could not imagine where I should stow 
myself. Everything seemed to be wrong, it was calcu- 
lated to make one feel ill-humored, and I broke out with 
" Where in the thunder do you fellows expect me to go. If 

this is'nt the most disagreeable ' ' wh^n T was interrupted 

by an unusual stir and bustle among the men, and the 
voice of the Captain shouting "Strike tents. Fall in 
quickly men." The first idea which struck me was, 
" what's the matter," the next a feeling of satisfaction 
that my trouble about the tent was thus summarily re- 
moved. Rhodes and Landis came out of there in a 
hurry, pins were pulled up and pieces unbuttoned, knap- 
sacks strapped on, and we were at our guns in a very few 
minutes. There was little time to spare either, as some 
of the companies were already moving off and we were 
compelled to run to reach our place in the regiment. The 
guns of those who had gone for shingles or scattered in 
search of other articles in the barns, etc., were left stand- 
ing there. I also noticed that instead of going toward 
the road we started back through the fields and rather in 
the direction of Gettysburg. Of course we understood 
from these circumstances that something of more than 
ordinary importance had occurred and could conjecture 
readily its character, but of the particulars we were then 
entirely ignorant. 

I will narrate them now as I heard them afterward.. 
Lee's army had entered Pennsylvania and that portion 
which subsequently occupied York, consisting of about tert 
thousand infantry, artillery and cavalry, under command, 
of General Early were then advancing from Chambersburg: 
to Gettysburg. It was a piece of supreme folly to send 
our regiment, numbering between seven and eight hundred 



340 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

men, perfectly raw and undisciplined, to meet such a force, 
and I believe Major Haller has the honor of that smart 
arrangement. It is said that when we left the wood, they 
were but three-fourths of a mile distant, and Prof. Jacobs 
affirms that the}' captured our pickets at their posts. I 
<;annot vouch for the latter statement, for I did not even 
know that any pickets had been stationed, though I pre- 
sume there were, as Colonel Jennings was too good an 
officer to neglect a precaution of such moment.^ 

But to resume : we crossed three or four fields until we 
•came to one of the numerous back roads, which we entered, 
and along which we proceeded in a rapid march. It is 
scarcely necessary to state, that in consequence of its muddy 
and slippery condition, traveUing was laborious and tire- 
some. At first, we- chose our path as much as possible, 
and avoided the mud puddles, but we had not gone a great 

' " On reaching the forks of the road on the east slope of the moun- 
tain about one and one-half miles from Cashtown I sent General 
Gordon with his brigade and White's battalion of cavalry on the 
macadamized road through Cashtown towards Gettysburg, and I 
moved with the rest of the command to the left through Hilltown 
to Mummasburg. I had heard on the road that there was probably 
a force at Gettysburg, though I could get no definite information 
as to its size; and the object of this movement was for Gordon to 
amuse and skirmish with the enemy, while I should get in his flank 
and rear so as to capture the whole force. * * The militia regi- 
ment which had been encountered by White's cavalry was the 26th 
Penna., consisting of eight or nine hundred men and had arrived at 
Gettysburg the night before and moved out that morning a few 
miles on the road to Cashtown, but had fled on the first approach of 
White's advance, taking across the fields between Mummasburg and 
Gettysburg and going towards Hunterstown ; of this force a little over 
two hundred prisoners in all were captured and subsequently paroled. 
Hay's brigade was halted and camped about a mile from Gettys- 
burg, two regiments having been sent to aid French in the pursuit 
of the fugitive militia but they were not able to get up with it." 

Gen. Juhal A. Early s official report. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 341 

way before we came to a running stream about knee deep. 
There was nothing to do but ford, and through we went. 
"I guess that, settles the question of wet feet," said 
Lieutenant Richards, and we afterward continued straight 
forward, movins; out of the direct hne for nothing;. 

The first intimation of danger which we received 
through the officers, was from the Lieutenant-Colonel, 
who came riding back, and muttered as he passed, 
" We'll go up here a little way, get a good position, and 
give 'em hell before they do take us." But we still kept 
marching, and the position was not taken. Indignation 
was the uppermost feeling in my mind. I believed we 
were running away from a lot of cavalry, because the 
Colonel was afraid to rely upon us, and that we would be 
everlastingly disgraced. I did not relish the idea of going 
down there t® return with less credit than before, and I said 
to Lieutenant Richards, " The Colonel don't appear to liave 
any confidence in his men. Why don't he try us, and 
then if we are whipped or misbehave, it will be time 
enough to run." He replied : " T guess the Colonel 
knows more about the matter than we do, and hfts good 
reasons for his actions," and so the conversation ended, 
but I was far from satisfied. The route pursued was an 
exceedingly crooked one, turning at nearly every corner. 
We had not marched many hours before a number began 
to flag, and a rest being absolutely necessary, we halted 
for a few minutes, but foon started on again. The effect 
of this was, that the companies became very much scat- 
tered and confused, the stronger men working forward to 
the front of the regiment, and the weaker gradually fall- 
ing back to the rear. About the middle of the afternoon 
many tired out commenced to drop ofi^, and were passed sit- 
ting by the roadside, and all were fatigued enough to con- 
clude that it was extremely hard work. 



342 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

At four o'clock, I was near the centre of the regiment, 
and had just passed Web. Davis and Buckley, a friend of 
Doc. Nyce, who said they would go no further. I was 
ascending a small hill, to the right were fields, and at some 
little distance a wood. Upon the top of the hill on the left 
was a medium sized brick house. About opposite the 
house, a branch of the wood extended to within perhaps a 
hundred and fifty yards of the road. It was at this place, 
that the rebels first made their appearance, and commenced 
picking up the stragglers in the rear. Seeing all of our 
men jumping over the fences on the right, I followed suit, 
and found myself in a corn field. Nearly all were in the ad- 
joining wheat field further on, so I directed my steps thither. 
Every one knows the disadvantage of going through a 
wet corn field, and how the mud clinging to the feet, im- 
pedes every moment. If in addition, they remember that 
I carried a pretty heavy load upon my back, was wearied 
with the previous fast tramping, and the " rebs " not far 
behind, they can form a pretty good idea of an unplea- 
sant situation. I thought to myself, "Well, I wouldn't 
run across this field if the devil himself were after me," 
and I do really believe, that if the whole rebel army had 
been within a few paces, I would have turned around to 
fight in a kind of determined desperation. So I walked 
slowly toward the rest. In this field, there was the greatest 
imaginable confusion. The officers were running around 
waving their swords, shouting and swearing, but no one 
dreamed of obeying them ; the men having been pre- 
viously all mingled together, were separated from their 
companies, and each fellow did as he thought proper. In 
fact they were compelled to do so, for the commands from 
half crazy Captains and Lieutenants were often unintelli- 
gible, and perfectly contradictory. Collected together in 
little knots, or standing alone, they commenced firing off 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 343 

their pieces as rapidly as possible. Some were falling in 
behind the fences, and others streaking off over the fields. 
I believe every man was sliouting or yelling. I did not 
Bee any of the regimental ofHcers, and think they must 
have been further ahead. After firing off one load and 
ramming down another, I began to look around for Co. 
F.. but could not see any one of them. About half a 
company were drawn up behind the next fence, and think- 
ing I might find some of them there, I went over to 
them. The great bulk of the regiment were much farther 
off, and the balls from their muskets and the rebel car- 
bines whistled over our heads very rapidly. We were 
rather between the two there, and had the benefit of all 
the firing. I was not at all disturbed by it, though I 
once or twice involuntarily dodged my head, and momen- 
tarily expected to see some one drop, but the aim was en- 
tirely too high. Here I met Sergeant Scheetz and Corporal 
Lloyd, and proposed to the former to take charge of the 
squad, and post them where he thought proper. He suo-- 
gested that it would be better to take a position on the 
edge of the wood, as the cavalry could not come through 
wnthout being broken up, and giving us a good oppor- 
tunity to pick them off. It was a few yards nearer the 
" rebs" than we then were, and we joined a small party who 
had already stationed themselves there. Scheetz said we 
ought to send out skirmishers, and some volunteering ad- 
vanced a considerable distance into the wood. The Ser- 
geant had great difficulty in getting his gun, which was 
wet, to go off, but finally succeeding, he rammed down 
another cartridge with the remark, " That is good for one 

anyhow." Lloyd proposed that when they came 

up, we should discharge our pieces once, and then sur- 
render. I shouted to those who were on the other side of 
the field, as to a parcel of boys at play, "Stop that firing 



3-44 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ' 

— you'll hit somebody after bit," which tends to show 
what mv feelings were at the time, and in what light I 
viewed the affair. One fellow from Pine Grove wa> so 
excited or ignorant that he rammed down the ball first, and 
poured the powder on top, thus rendering his musket use- 
less. In the meantime the " rebs '' had divided, some com- 
ing up the road as far as the brick house where they 
captured a few of our men who had gone inside, j 

and the rest went over to the right, and were separated 
from us bv the wood I have mentioned. Our regi- 
ment were now nearly all collected together, and were 
drawn up in line, some two or three fields distant.^ Sup- 
posing the idea was to await an attack there, we concluded 
we had better go ove rand join them, which we did. 
Fullv believing we would continue the fight, I took off 
mv knapsack in order to be unencumbered and placed it 
in a fence corner where I could easily get it afterward. 
Upon taking my position in rank and after waiting for a 
short time we commenced a retreat toward the mountains. 
I hastened back readjusted my knapsack, and before long 
we were entirely concealed by the woods. Here we 
halted to have the roll called and among quite a number 
who were missing I was not sorry to learn the " one- 
eyed sergeant" was included. Web. Davis, Buckley and 
Reddy were also among the captured. Although an hour 
previous I had felt excessively tired, the excitement of 
the skirmish had completely removed all fatigue and had 
so refreshened and invigorated my spirits that I seemed to 
be as elastic as in the morning. I suppose it affected the 
others in the same manner. While here Rennard who 



* The regiment was promptly formed on th& left of the road and 
opened fire, checking his advance and compelling him to fall back 
with some loss in killed and wounded. Bates, Vol. v, p. 1225. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 345 

stepped to one side for some purpose, left me in cliarge of 
his gun, but as we moved off almost immediately I stood 
it up against a tree within his sight, but some chap who 
was passing by managed to exchange it for his own which 
had a ball firmly wedged in the barrel. Crossing creeks 
and fields, tearing down the fences and tramping grain 
and corn, over gullies and hills, but keeping principally 
to the woods and mountains, we continued our retreat.^ 
I suppose the Colonel had little doubt of our ability to 
repel the cavalry, but their evident intention was to delay 
■us until the arrival of infantry and other support. Gen- 
eral Early had expressed his determination of taking the 
regiment entire, and that night said in Gettj^sburg that we 
had thus far escaped but on the morrow our capture 
was certain. In circumstances in. which there is anything 

^ " Hanover Junction, June 27, 9 A. M. The telegraph operator 
is still at Hanover. Col. Jenning's regiment left Harrisburg on 
Thursday for Gettysburg. The engine ran over a cow, seven miles 
from Gettysburg, and the locomotive and several cars were injured, 
. but no one was hurt. On Friday morning the regiment went to 
■Gettysburg. The Phila. City Troop and another cavalry company 
preceded them * * * at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, our 
cavalry left Gettysburg as the rebels entered * * * Before 
leaving, a train with thirteen freight cars, some with Col. Jennings' 
supplies, was run to this side of the bridge at the end of the town. 
The bridge and the train were afterwards destroyed by the rebels." 

" York, June 27, 1 P. M. Nothing has been heard yet of Jen- 
nings' regiment. The attack on them commenced about three yester- 
day, by a large cavalry force, and continued to the last advices. 
The loss is not known, but it is reported that a number were taken 
prisoners.' ' 

" Harrisburg, June 28th. Col. Jennings' regiment which had 
the skirmish at Gettysburg arrived here to-day. He lost about three 
hundred men in prisoners and stragglers. The officers were sent to 
Richmond and the men paroled. Some of the men have arrived 

here." The Press, June 29th, 1863. 

22 



346 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

like an equality of force, running is properly considered 
disgraceful ; but as we were situated, our strength was 
entirely inadequate for successful opposition, and we found 
ourselves drawn into a trap from which we could only be 
extricated by skill and celerity. Considering the matter 
calmly now, I am perfectly willing to bear all the stigma 
which inconsiderate and ignorant persons may deem con- 
nected with it, especially since I well know that all the 
hardships to be endured and difKculties to be surmounted 
in a military life are not confined to the battlefield. The 
man who dies in his tent from fever or freezes while on 
picket, may suffer infinitely more than he who is pierced 
by a bullet or blown to atoms by a shell, though the 
latter attracts more public attention from the eclat with 
which it is attended. If I am capable of judging at all 
of my own mind, I would in any part of the time have 
preferred an engagement to the retreat, notwithstanding I 
might have had occasion to change my opinion had we 
been brought into a severe struggle, and though I believe 
Colonel Jennings deserves the highest praise not only for 
having adopted the sole proper course of action but for 
the dexteritv with which it was conducted. 

A large proportion of the men had taken off" and lost 
their knapsacks during the skirmish, and others already 
tired with the labors of the day and seeing the prospect of 
a long march ahead, were one after another throwing them 
aside. I carried mine until pretty late, when lieutenant 
Richards came to me and said that we still had a tramp 
of indefinite length to make, and thinking that it was 
probably costing me more than it was worth, I unstrapped 
it and left it behind some bushes. It was the object of the 
Colonel to keep the regiment undercover, if possible, until 
we could get beyond the reach of the rebels, and several 
times their scouts were in very close proximity. About 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 347 

dusk when we were upon top of a hill, and were just on 
the point of crossing a field which intervened between us 
and another wood that we wished to enter, two or three of 
of their horsemen were discovered moving along the oppo- 
site fence. They did not see us, however, and we lay down 
quietly among the trees until they had departed. There was 
so little noise among the men that the least sound could 
be heard distinctly. While at that place "Tucker"^ 
loaned me his g-um blanket as he had an overcoat beside 
and did not wish to be burdened with both, but I un- 
fortunately had no string with which to fasten it over my 
shoulders. There was something very thrilling and ro- 
mantic to me then in the idea of our position, and the 
resemblance we had to hunted game endeavoring to elude 
their pursuers. A sense of danger gave intensity to the 
interest with which we watched the chances of being 
captured. It soon after became very dark, which caused 
us to feel more secure but increased the unpleasantness of 
travelling. About nine o'clock we had descended a road 
between two woods and arrived at a stream of some size 
and depth, crossed by a shaky foot log which had formerly 
possessed a railing for the use of the hand, that the eftects 
of time had partially destroyed, leaving gaps of several 
feet, so that in the dark it required a degree of care to 
walk over safely. Just as the first of the regiment had 
stepped upon this log, the sound of horses' hoofs was heard 
upon the summit of the hill rapidly approaching. Im- 
mediately a panic seized upon the men and all made a 
rush for the log. Not a single word was spoken, and as 
the stampede commenced from the rear it sounded to me 
precisely like the rustle of a sudden gust of wind. I ran 
with the rest for several yards, and lost Tucker's gum 

^ Robert Renshaw. 



348 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHFS. 

blanket, but having time to recover my thoughts, I saw 
that nothing was to be gained by crowding upon the log, 
and returned to hunt the blanket, but though any num- 
ber of shelter tents were scattered around I was unable 
to find what I sought. In their eagerness to get over, 
several were pushed into the water, and some even jumped 
in from the bank and waded through up to their waists. 
A number of guns were lost in the stream, having been 
dropped in the unaccountable fright. I waited until the 
hurry had subsided, and crossing at my leisure, found Ren- 
nard on the other side with two guns which he had carried 
— showing that he had maintained his composure. He 
gave one of them to some fellow who had lost his own. 
It appeared that two or three of our scouts were the cause 
of the alarm. I was so impressed with its utter folly, and 
so out of patience with myself, that I determined if such a 
thing should occur again, I would retain my presence of 
mind and stand still until I saw some necessity for moving. 
I do not attempt to palliate or justify such a foolish fright, 
but considering the perfect darkness of the night, the 
delicate position upon the bank of a stream with part of 
the regiment already on' the log, and the knowledge each 
one had of the presence of the enemy in the immediate 
neighborhood, I doubt whether any body of men would 
have acted better in like circumstances. When I re- 
member too what Xenophon tells of the conduct of the 
celebrated "ten thousand" Greeks in a somewhat similar 
case, and how men who have since proven themselves as 
brave as any who ever fought, ran in the early part of the 
war all the way from Bull Run to Washington, I think we 
are at least excusable. Had we actually been attacked 
at the time, I firmly believe twenty-five men would have 
cut us all to pieces. After all had crossed over in safety, 
we waited along the road for a few minutes, and while 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 349 

tliere some fellow came riding toward us at full gallop. 
In an instant every piece was cocked and raised to the 
shoulder, and I only wonder some one did not shoot him. 
It proved that our equanimity had not been entirely 
restored. The man was frightened nearly out of his 
senses, and giving a confused and unsatisfactory account 
of himself, was taken into custody. 

A drizzling rain kept falling through the night, and 
any one can easily imagine, as we blundered on, how 
fatiguing marching became. In the woods we were con- 
tinually stumbling over brush and stumps or being caught 
by bushes and briers ; in the ploughed fields we v/ere com- 
pelled to carry an extra weight of clay with each step. 
It was actually a pleasure to enter a grain field, for the 
long straw tramped down prevented us from sinking in, 
and made a good road. We left a trail throug-h them like 
that of some huge roller. Several of the farmers accom- 
panied us on horseback acting as scouts, and every once 
in a while they would be sent ahead to reconnoitre the 
way. At such times when a halt was ordered, each man 
would drop down in his tracks and snatch a few moments 
slumber while awaiting the command to proceed. 

The intention of the Colonel at first was to endeavor to 
reach the railroad somewhere in the neighborhood of 
Hanover, and a man was dispatched on horseback to 
telegraph for cars, but after travelling for some time in 
that direction, he learned the place was occupied by the 
rebels, so we turned toward York. The Lieutenant 
Colonel was sent to that city, and as we did not hear any- 
thing concerning him for several days, it was supposed he 
was captured. Some time during the night about a hun- 
dred of our men who were separated from the rest at the 
log, and had been wandering around through the woods 
since, by the greatest good fortune met with us. We 



350 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

were then in a road, and as usual, when they came up 
nearly all jumped over the fences, and cocked their 
muskets ready to fire. Having learned something by my 
former escapade, I stood where I was, watching intently 
to see what was the matter. A figure only a few feet 
from me, whom I recognized by his gruff voice to be the 
Major, said: "Men, you act like a set of sheep," and I 
felt somewhat gratified to know that I was not included. 

Toward morning we lay down and slept for perhaps an 
hour among some stone piles along a fence, but by the 
first appearance of dawn were on the march again. 

(Saturday, June 27th.) Those who worn out were un- 
able to go further dropped off one after another, and took 
shelter in the various farm houses. Some were captured 
and others escaped by exchanging their clothing for a citi- 
zen's suit. 

About ten o'clock we halted in a wood where we re- 
mained for two hours or more. A fire was soon started, 
and we dried our clothing by it as well as we could. A 
number crowded around it and went to sleep, waking up 
afterward feeling stiff and wretched. I went to a spring 
which was near, and washing the mud from my stock- 
ings and shoes, put them on again with a great deal more 
comfort. Then taking a seat upon a log, I drew from my 
haversack a piece of bread covered with dirt and soaked 
with water, which I was eating witli the relish of a man 
really hungry, when George Meigs came up and asked me 
if I would not give him a little piece of it. I divided it 
with him, and he was so grateful that he reminded me of 
it more than once afterward. Graham, a youth, who 
came from the Pottstown newspaper office, loaned me his 
^um-blanket with more than ordinary kindness, and this 
time I secured it witli a string. While here some booby 
fired off his gun to remove the load, and his foolish ex- 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 351 

ample was followed by perhaps fifty others before it could 
be stopped, and consequently the "rebs," who heard the 
discharge, were in our camp in a very short time after we 
left it. Some of the prisoners, who were then in their 
hands, told us that when the reports were heard, they con- 
cluded we had been overtaken, and gave up all hopes of 
our escape. By some means, the Colonel received intelli- 
gence that the " rebs " were advancing on York, so upon 
leaving the wood, we took the road for Harrisburg. 
About two o'clock we came to a tavern where the people 
had prepared, and gave to us, a meal of bread and apple 
butter, the first we had eaten with the exception of the 
afore-mentioned piece of bread, since we had left Gettys- 
burg on the previous morning. Of course we were in a 
condition to enjoy and be thankful. From there we 
pushed on rapidly, and as evening approached, I began 
to feel that my powers ©f endurance would not hold out 
a great while longer, but was felicitating myself upon the 
prospect of our successful escape, when being within a 
mile of Dillsburg, some of the citizens came out in great 
haste to meet us with the information that the rebels were 
in advance of us, and that it would not be safe to pro- 
ceed. In my heart T cursed the rebels, for it seemed 
that just when we were in hopes of obtaining some rest, 
and were congratulating ourselves upon the favorable op- 
portunity, we were called upon to make still further ex- 
ertions to insure our safety. 

The Colonel immediately formed the regiment across 
the road, so as to occupy all the space, and brought 
them to a charge bayonets. Co. A knelt down in 
front, so that those behind could fire over their heads, 
and Co. F were drawn up within a few feet of them 
with loaded muskets, the rest in succession. From 
the disposition of affairs, it looked very much as if he ex- 



352 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHKJAL SKETCHES. 

pected an attack, and he made a short speech to us saying,, 
that if we maintained that position firmly, all the cavalry 
in the rebel army could make no impression upon us. 
After waiting about ten minutes without perceiving 
any hostile demonstrations, we marched at a charge 
through the town, and ofT to the right half a mile to the 
top of a hill, upon the crest of which, five companies 
were faced in one direction, and the remainder in the op- 
posite. Small scouting parties could be seen some dis- 
tance off, but not in sufficient force to render them dan- 
gerous. 

The people had provided supper for us in the town, 
but as it happened we could not stay to eat it, they 
carried to us on the hill as much as we needed. It 
consisted of bread spread with apple butter, and coffee. I 
tried in vain to secure a piece of meat, which I began to 
want. As soon as it was dark, we started on again, the 
Colonel having told us that after a march of about four 
miles, we would halt long enough to get some rest and 
sleep, which he saw were now indispensable. " Doc " 
Nyce and George Meigs remained in Dillsburg, and they 
said a large force of " Grey backs " passed through there- 
during the night. A couple of fellows whom we had 
brought along with us as suspicious characters refused tO' 
proceed, and commenced to make some noise, but on find- 
ing there was likely to be an application of the bayonet, 
they became peaceable and submissive. We may have 
only gone four miles, but it seemed much further before 
we reached the camping ground, which was a wood en- 
closed in the semi-circular bend of a stream. It was sur- 
rounded by wooded hills, and approached by a foot log 
crossing the creek. Co. F. was detailed for picket duty, 
and about a dozen of us were sent to guard the log. 
Some were stationed, and the rest including myself were 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 353 

told that we might sleep under a large tree which stood 
there, bat were carefully cautioned to have our muskets 
in our hands with bayonets fixed, ready to jump up at a 
moment's notice. The ground was wet and cold, but we 
were asleep in a very short time. Once we were aroused 
through a mistake, occasioned by the approach of one of 
our officei'S, and though my musket was in my arms, in 
springing up suddenly, T managed to seize that of the 
man next to me. 

(Sunday June 28th.) After a rest of three or four hours, 
which refreshed us considerably, we returned to the road 
and continued our march. Sometime before day, we were 
startled by the rapid discharge of three or four muskets 
in the advance, and the regiment came to a halt. In a 
few minutes it was reported that we had reached General 
Couch's outer picket lines, and a young fellow on guard 
had been killed. I never knew whether the latter was 
true or not, but hope it was false. The station was in 
the barn of a tavern, opposite to which we waited for 
some fifteen minutes, and filled our canteens with water. 
We were very much rejoiced to find ourselves at last 
within the union lines, and the Lieutenant told us that 
we were only about twelve or fourteen miles from Har- 
risburg. At seven o'clock we came to a small town whose 
name I have forgotten, where we were furnished with 
breakfast. Rennard and I sat down on a board alongside 
of the Major and were talking about the distance to 
Harrisburg, when he cast a damper on our spirits by. 
telling us that it was very uncertain about our going to 
that place, as the rebel column was already beyond 
Mechanicsburg and it was expected the capital would be 
attacked, perhaps captured before night ; and that if we 
did reach it, it would only be by a long round-about 
march. We were then off to the risrht of the direct road- 



354 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

I began to think we were never going to get beyond the 
reach of the villains. That morning I was very much 
troubled with the diarrhoea which rendered me so weak 
that several times I was on the point of giving up. Once 
when compelled to stop, I told Rennard that I did not 
believe I would be able to go any further, and I would 
probably remain in some farm house. He advised me to 
hold on as long as I could, and though the regiment had 
gained perhaps a quarter of a mile, I overtook them, 
determined to endure it as long as possible. I never before 
in all my life felt so utterly miserable and I remember 
thinking that if ever I came out of that scrape, I would 
be careful not to become entano-led in such another. 

o 

After 5^everal more weary hours and miles, we were 
gladdened by the sight of Harrisburg at a distance over 
the hills — and a faint cheer arose along the line. Some 
fellow had even ambition enough left to attempt to 
create a laugh, and the Colonel appeared to be in the best 
of spirits — well he might be ! At a place I think on the 
Susquehanna a mile and a half from Fort Couch the 
people gave us some dinner. Here parties were cutting 
•down trees across the roads and preparing abattis to resist 
the advance of cavalry, which was looked for every 
moment. I went to the Captain and asked him whether 
he would grant me leave of absence for a few hours 
promising to report myself in that time, but he refused. 
I could not help thinking rather bitterly of a number of 
.his own friends who had stopped with his permission at 
different points, but said nothing. My intention was to go 
to some house and request the favor of lying down in the 
entry or stable until I felt better. Between that place 
and the fort we passed several regiments of militia who 
■crowded about us, inquiring who we were and where we 
had come from. Seme of them said " Thev look hard 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 355 

don't tliey ? as if they had been out for a year;" and 
I expect we did present a pretty rough appearance. We 
had lost all the regimental baggage, drums, tents, blankets, 
<S;c., and over two hundred men, and the remainder were 
dirty, stiff and foot sore, limping along like so many 
cripples. We were destitute of everything pertaining to 
comfort or convenience. Somewhere near two o'clock we 
came to the fort and halted at the foot of the hill. Here 
we saw Reddy and a man called " Jersey" who had been 
captured and paroled, and they narrated their adventures. 
!N"either of them was able to tell me anything concerning 
Roily, and I took it for granted he had been taken, his 
weight making an escape by running impossible.-^ We 

^August 21st, 1881. I made a visit to Gettysburg on tlie 15tli. 
inst., and learned from persons who were there in 1863, many ad- 
ditional facts, and went on foot over the battlefield and over the 
grounds occupied by our regiment near the town. Mr. Rufus E. 
Gulp, son of the owner of Gulp's Hill, who was a member of Co. 
A., tells me that our camp June 26th, 1863, was on the Marsh 
Creek, to the right of the Chambersburg pike. The engagement 
took place on the road from Mummasburg to Hunterstown, near 
the Harrisburg road. The creek we crossed on a log, was the Cone- 
wago, and the place about two and a half miles below the Harris- 
burg road. Our camp the next day, where the men fired off" their 
muskets, was at Woolford's Mill, at the junction of the Bermudian 
and Lattemore creeks. From there we went up the Lattemore 
creek to the Harrisburg road. In the engagement, a rebel was 
shot and carried into a barn. The farmers who were with us 
through the night of June 26th, were J. W. Diehl and A. F. Gift. 
Mr. Diehl says, that the rebels were on both roads upon the front, 
and also in the rear, and that he could see no chance of escape for 
us but to cross the Susquehanna near Golesborough. He also says, 
that we left some dead rebels on our path. 

Major Robert Bell was at the head of a company of horse from the 
town, under the direction of Major Granville 0. Haller. He was in the 
room at the Eagle Hotel, when Lieutenant Mowry reported to Haller 
with our detachment, on the night of June 25th. The intention 



356 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

then marched up into the fort and stacked arms on tlie 
side of the hilh There were two or three New York 
regiments beside us, who had recently come up from 
Chambersburg, and one of them had an enormous quantity 
of chickens which they had " drawn" from the farm yards 
on the way. I endeavored to find their Surgeon to get 
some medicine from him, but he was not about. I then 

had been to send us out to occupy the pass in the South Mountain, 
a narrow defile where a few men would have a great advantage. 
This plan W9s abandoned, upon Bell's telling them that the rebels 
were already in possession of the pass. He rode out the next 
morning with Jennings to Marsh Creek. After we had camped, 
they rode further to the top of the hill, and there were the rebels, 
cavalry, infantry and artillery. " I do not see that I have any 
business with these men here," said Jennings, " What shall I do 
with them ?" " What do you want to do ?'' asked Bell. " I came 
from Harrisburg, and I guess the best thing would be, to try and 
get back again.'' 

It was a rainy day, and Bell pointed out the direction and ex- 
plained the roads. As he saw the end of the regiment marching 
off up the hill, he thanked the Lord that he was not on foot. They 
captured the company left as a rear guard. The force which struck 
us at Witmer's was two regiments of cavalry. 

The brick house where the engagement took place mentioned in 
my narrative, belonged to Henry Witmer. About fifteen of our 
men, I am told by its present occupants, were captured here. One 
man who hid in a meat tub was finally discovered. Another fired 
from the garret window at a rebel cavalryman and shot his horse. 
He changed his uniform for an old suit belonging to Mr. Witmer, and 
made his escape. When the rebels came back by the house, there 
were two of them supported on their horses, supposed to have been 
shot. The Witmers found a number of bullet holes in the gate and 
fences afterwards. 

At the house of William Wert, a half a mile above, a number of 
our men were captured. Our line of battle was formed in Wert's 
field. 

Hepry Witmer's house is about four and a-half miles from Get- 
tysburg by the Carlisle road, about seven by the Harrisburg road. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 357 

went in search of some water, and discovered that the only 
supply of that necessary article in the fort was what had 
been pumped up from the Susquehanna, and having been 
filled into barrels which previously contained oil of some 
kind, it was so nauseous as almost to create vomiting. 
George Meigs came to me and offered me his canteen. 
On placing it to my lips I was delighted with a draught 
of lemonade which he had bought from a sutler in camp 
and offered to me, he said, in recompense for the piece of 
bread I had given him. I was amply repaid. 

That afternoon the rebels came to within three miles of 
the fort which was the nearest point they reached, when 
ordered back by Lee for the purpose of concentrating his 
forces to oppose Meade. In my opinion there is not the 
least doubt that in one day more they would have entered 
Harrisburg. Many of the citizens had vacated their 
houses, and large quantities of goods had been sent by 
the merchants to New York and other places for security. 
Even farmers miles away deserted their homes, which 
was very bad policy as both parties despoiled and took 
whatever was wanted from the vacant houses, and when 
the owners returned they must have found many things 
destroyed which they could have protected had they been 
present.^ 

^ " Late on Thursday evening, however, 100 picked men from the 
26th Regiment were ordered up from their encampment to Gettys- 
burg, with the design of sending them to the mountain as sharp- 
shooters or bushwhackers in order to cut off the rebel pickets, who, 
according to information then received, extended down the south- 
eastern flanks of the mountain and were making gradual approaches 
toward our town. But the heavy rain of the night caused them to 
be detained until the balance of the regiment arrived and thus they 
were saved from almost certain capture or destruction.'' 

" Friday, June 26th, the 26th Regiment arrived at Gettysburg 
from their camping ground at 9 A. M., and by order of Maj. 



358 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

During the rjiglit it rained, and as I had returned to 
Graham his gum blanket which he needed for himself, 
there seemed to be no alternative but to sleep out on the 
open bank, without any shelter whatever. I lay down 
spoon fashion, between Tucker and another man, and the 
former covered me over as well as he could with the lap- 
pels and tail of his overcoat. Thus packed together, we 
kept each other warm, and I shall ever feel grateful to 
Tucker for the kindness and goodness of heart he ex- 
hibited on that and the succeeding night. Thanks to his 
care and my own fatigue, I slept pretty well notwith- 
standing the adverse circumstances. 

Haller, tliougli contrary to the earnest remonstrances of Jennings, 
Colonel of the regiment, was sent forward at 10^ A. M. on the 
Chambersburg turnpike. This was a suicidal movement of a hand- 
ful, chiefly of inexperienced men, in the face of a large body of ex- 
perienced troops. The rebels afterward laughed at the folly of the 
order. But advancing to the distance of about three miles to the 
westward our little band encamped and threw out their pickets. At 
about 3 P. M. the rebels in force made their appearance and cap- 
tured nearly all their pickets, 40 in number. Col. Jennings, who 
had on several occasions shown himself to be an officer as skillful as 
he is cool and brave, seeing the trap into which he had been led, 
immediately upon sight of the enemy divided the regiment into 
three squads in order to deceive them with the appearance of a 
large body of infantry. The deception proved so far successful that 
the rebels did not press them, fearing that a direct attack might 
prove more serious than a mere skirmish. Jenning's band however 
hastily retreated eastward over the fields and by country roads, 
occasionally skirmishing with the enemy's cavalry which was sent 
in pursuit of them , and after losing 120 more of their number near 
Hunterstown, and zigzagging very frequently, being often within 
hearing distance of their pursuers, they reached Harrisburg on 
Sunday, the 28th of June, much fatigued, having marched 54 out of 
60 continuous hours. Too much praise cannot be awarded Col. 
Jennings for the skillful manner in which he conducted this retreat 
and saved the regiment from capture.'' — Jacob s notes on the Battle 
of Gettysburg. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 359 

(Monday, June 29th.) The Colonel reported the regi- 
ment unfit for duty, and requiring a few days rest. It 
was rumored through the fort that the " rebs" were falling 
back, and I for one was very well pleased with the in- 
formation. 

As our quarter master was among the missing, and red- 
tape requires that all demands for subsistence should be 
made through him, we were unable to draw rations, and 
had nothing to eat except some hard tack which some of 
the men in another regiment gave to us. I felt an irre- 
sistible craving for meat, and under the influence of it, 
on writing home to mother an account of our adventures^ 
I asked her to send me a piece of dried beef. That was 
providing for the future, but did not do much towards- 
alleviating present necessities, so conquering some few 
compunctions, I went down over the hill to a small col- 
lection of houses on the bank of the river, and unsuccess- 
fully endeavored to beg or buy some. At one house, the 
neatest and most capacious there, I inquired " whether 
they had not a piece of ham," and on being answered in 
the negative, " whether they could not spare me a few 
drops of laudanum." They said they would be willing 
to give it to me if they had any, but that General Hall 
was about occupying the premises as his headquarters, 
and all their articles of every kind had been removed. I 
discovered however, under the bank, a spring of good. 
water with a narrow steep path, leading to it from the fort, 
which I frequently had occasion to make use of afterward. 
The descent was almost perpendicular, and it could only 
be ascended by the assistance of the bushes which grew 
on the side of the hill. I also found it a most convenient 
means of exit when I wanted to go down to the river to- 
wash, or for any other purpose. 

(Tuesday, June 30th.) In the morning we were sup- 



360 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

plied with shelter tents, blankets and other necessary 
articles, and in the afternoon marched out some three or 
four miles after the rebels, who were retreating. Being 
unwell, I had a great dislike to starting out again, but we 
fortunately had not far to go, and relieved some regiment 
stationed on the front. On the way we halted once along 
the road, and while waiting, a negro servant of one of the 
■officers came riding toward- us on a Colonel's horse. 
When he approached, one of the men stepped out, 
stopped him, and for mischief inquired for his pass. The 
man said he had none, and after some parleying was per- 
mitted to proceed. On arriving opposite Co. D, a big 
stout bully, by the name of Bill, caught the bridle of his 
horse, and began to curse and abuse him in a most shame- 
ful manner. The negro replied very peaceably, but Bill 
picked up several stones as large as he could well lift, and 
hurled them at him one after another with all his strength. 
One struck him in the middle of the back, and had it 
been his head must have knocked him senseless. Some 
of our fellows who were incensed at such a wanton out- 
rage interfered, and for a while it looked as if we were 
going to have a regular rumpus. Bill said, " it served 

him right, he was only ad d nigger anyhow," and he 

appeared to have a number of friends who were ready to 
support him in any abuse he could bestow on a " nigger." 
This case was carried to headquarters, but I believe he 
only received a reprimand. 

Our camp was in an open field not far from the river, 
and some two or three hundred yards from a deserted 
house, whence the men brought chairs, boards, doors and 
whatever could be carried away. Some even lugged up 
a stove, which was perfectly useless to them. While 
here, we were surprised by the appearance of the Lieu- 
tenant Colonel, Roily, and a number of others whom we 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 361 

had thought captured. Their arrival diminished the loss in 
our compan}'- to I think, seventeen. Among these, was 
Corporal MacDonald, of whom they tell a pretty good 
story. For some private matter, after the company was 
sworn in, he went to Pottstown. and before returning, as 
there was then every probability of our being away for a 
longtime, he visited all his friends, and rather importantly 
bade them a last farewell. On reaching Harrisburg, he 
found the regiment had gone, and hastening after them, 
arrived at Gettysburg just in time to be captured by the 
rebels. They asked him how long he had been in the 
service. " About two hours " said he, and the next day he 
went back to Pottstown a paroled prisoner, considerably 
crest fallen and almost ashamed to go out on the streets. 
Roily and the others had been left at Gettysburg in 
charge of the baggage, and upon the approach of the 
" rebs," they, together with Major Haller, were compelled 
to skedaddle. They footed it to Hanover, and from there 
were carried on cars. At Columbia, they participated in 
the firing of the railroad bridge over the Susquehanna. 
Roily curses Major Haller for an arrant coward, and says, 
that when the "rebs" were coming, he drew them up, 
told them if they wanted him to send for him, and scam- 
pered over the bridge as fast as he could travel. 

Toward evening we moved our quarters to another field. 
I went to the Surgeon who had then arrived, and asked 
for some medicine for my dysentery. He gave me some 
castor oil in a small quantity of whiskey which I swal- 
lowed. Rhodes and Landis put up a tent for us three, 
while I lay about not fit for much of anything. 

(Wednesday, July 1st.) After breakfast we had our 

guns to scour, and as they were very much rusted from 

being continually in the rain, it was no slight task. John 

Vanderslice, a gentleman from Phoenixville, over sixty 

23 



362 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

years of age, who came up with us, and had since beerj 
at Charabersburg with a battery, came to see us, and 
afterward left for home. In the afternoon, Rennard and I 
went to a small dam, not far off, and washed our bodies 
and underclothing with the expectation of having them 
dry and clean. In the former we were disappointed, for 
shortly after returning to camp, we received orders to 
pack up, and were obliged to put them on wet. A large 
force of negroes were employed on the hills cutting off 
the timber, in order to give the artillery from the fort and 
opposite bank of the river opportunity to play upon any 
approaching enemy. Toward evening, we marched back 
to Port Couch, and were furnished with the wedge tents 
of a regiment which had just departed. Roily, Rennard, 
Tucker, Ford and myselt arranged to take one together,, 
but before it was put up, Rennard and I were detailed 
for guard, and had to leave it in charge of Roily. The 
next morning when we were relieved at guard mounting, 
we found the tent erected in a very undesirable location, 
being partially doubled over the cook shop of the next 
company, which contracted our limits, beside making it 
extremely unpleasant. I went to the Captain and asked 
permission to remove it to an open space nearer their 
quarters, but he would not give his assent. A short time 
afterward some of the Pottstowners took possession of the 
very same place. After that I never asked a favor when 
I could possibly help it, but in matters of that kind, did 
just as I pleased, and what was not right had to be done 
over. 

In relating the events of the next week or two, which 
were passed in the fort, I will endeavor to give them as 
connectedly as possible, but will not maintain the precise 
arrangement of dates, as has previously been done. The 
Colonel was made commander of the post and it was our 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 363 

duty to garrison the place, Company F. being especially 
commissioned by him to take charge of the gate. That 
was much more agreeable than walking around the parapet 
and beside relieved us from the necessity of going on 
picket. Two large marquee tents were arranged with 
board seats in them and other conveniences for guard 
quarters, and being just within the entrance of the fort, 
formed a very pleasant and capacious retreat for the re- 
liefs off duty. My turn to go on guard came around once 
in every three or four days and I had no particular 
objection to it, save that it rained nearly every night and 
I was consequently very often soaked. The muskets too 
became wet and rusted and had to be cleaned very fre- 
quently, an operation which I always disliked or rather 
detested. We also commenced to drill regularly, some- 
thing in which we hitherto had had little experience. 
We had squad-drill in the mornings before breakfast, 
company, from nine to eleven, regimental, from two to 
five P. M. and dress parade at six. The latter always pos- 
sessed an attraction for me, arousing all the military ardor 
and enthusiasm in my nature, and exciting emotions 
which it is difficult to describe, but somewhat akin to 
those which I suppose every one has experienced upon 
hearing a band of music play well " The star spangled 
banner." The sharp ringing tones of the Adjutant and the 
gruff bass voice of the Major, who had command on such 
occasions, sound through my ears even yet. The roll 
was called at five A. M. and nine P. M. Absence at 
either time was followed by double fatigue, or water duty 
for the next day. Roily overslept himself one morning 
and was sent with a number of others to clean the filth 
from off the grounds, which made him swear most 
bitterly. There was a sutler in camp from whom could 
be bought little articles at most exorbitant prices, and 



364 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

another down at the bridge where I sometimes purcliased 
butter. The men were generally very anxious to have 
soft bread but it always seemed to me that without butter 
hard tack was much preferable. 

I once employed the sutler to bring over from Har- 
risburg a package which mother wrote to me had 
been expressed. It contained a very large piece of 
dried beef, weighing several pounds, and a case of 
needles, pins, scissors, &c., all of which proved very use- 
ful to myself as well as others. The beef we cut in 
slices and Tom, the Captain's negro cook, loaned us his 
.pans with which to fry it. Mike the compauy's cook, 
having from his position considerable power in the facility 
with which he could give burnt victuals and fat or bone 
for meat, was extremely insolent, and was also the filthiest 
man I ever had the misfortune to come in contact with. 
As an exemplification of the latter quality the following 
incident will serve. A New York regiment, encamped 
near us, had received their pay and returned home. Mike 
who was of an acquisitive disposition gathered up a 
quantity of underclothing they had left lying around their 
tents, but fearing that they might contain "greybacks," 
or in other words " body lice," he boiled them thoroughly 
in the camp kettles, and that very day we had bean soup 
for dinner made in the same vessels. Let any one imagine 
liow his feelings would be galled at being compelled to 
carry water or do other like services for such a creature, 
and he can form an idea of some of the minor annoyances 
connected with a private's duties. 

The Chaplain of the regiment had prayer and preaching 
very often in the evenings. There was a Presbyterian 
Minister from Erie, Pennsylvania, a private in one of the 
companies, who frequently entertained us with accounts 
of his travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, and also with 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 600' 

selections from Bible history, in which he was exceedingly 
well versed. He was generally well read, a rather fluent 
speaker, and the men showed there appreciation of him by 
gathering in crowds to listen to his discourses. Some one 
also had printed a poetical account of the battle of 
"Bailey's hill," as they styled our skirmish near Gettys- 
burg, and made considerable money by circulating it 
through the fort at ten cents a copy. Some of the men 
had their tents arranged very comfortably. We floored ours 
with boards and made a sort of a table and seat in front,, 
but I think it was the meanest one in the whole company^ 
A large quantity of filth had accumulated about the fort, 
rendering it unpleasant as well as unhealthy, and the time 
we spent in it was very disagreeable to me — more so I 
suppose because I was continually troubled with diarrhoea. 
Joe. Rennard took a violent cold during our march and 
had such a terrible cough that he was sent to the hos- 
pital, in a tavern under the hill, where he remained 
until we were mustered out some weeks afterward. Coun- 
try people sometimes came into the fort with fruit 
and berries for sale, but I was afraid to eat them, and 
confined myself almost exclusively to camp-fare. It is 
likely I would have felt better had I not been quite so 
abstemious, for I afterward found berries to be an excel- 
lent remedy. 

On the third of July we heard numerous rumors 
of a battle between Meade and Lee, in which the latter 
was badly beaten, and the succeeding midnight we 
were awakened, ordered to prepare for marching, and 
went down to a train of cars but found it already filled 
with soldiers. It was raining in torrents and we stood 
there waiting for transportation for several hours, but as 
there did not appear to be any provided, some of us went 
into a grain house by the railroad, and went to sleep. 



366 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

After a time we were called out and placed in passenger 
cars (how fine tbey were), where we sat for half an hour 
and then marched back to our old quarters in the fort, at 
which we arrived about twelve o'clock. Col. William- 
son, who was on a visit to the company, from Pottstown, 
said they had received some unfavorable news in Harris- 
burg from the Army. 1 was immediately put on guard, 
and thus in the rain, I spent my Fourth of July. 

When the news of the capture of Vicksburg, with the 
garrison and stores, was received, there was the greatest 
rejoicing among the men. Gen. Hall ordered all the 
troops in his command to be drawn up in the fort, and 
after making a speech to them detailing all the circum- 
stances then known of that important success, a German 
battery stationed there fired a salute of thirty-three guns 
in honor of the victory. Some began to think that the 
"emergency" was very nearly over. 

During the following week the three months militia 
arrived from all parts of the State in great numbers, and 
trains were running day and night conveying them down 
the Cumberland Valley. The people, who had never 
been thoroughly aroused until the State was invaded and 
the crisis upon them, then commenced to exert them- 
selves in earnest, and a large force was organized and 
thrown into the field, though too late to be of very ef- 
fective service. We, who had seen the rebels and been 
roughino- it somewhat, felt ourselves to be of considerable 
consequence among the new comers, especially as many 
of them were of those who had previously refused to take 
the oath and returned home. 

A great many farmers from the valley who were going 
back to their places, and citizens from Harrisburg and other 
towns, came daily to visit the fort through curiosity, and 
were a regular nuisance to us on guard. None were ad- 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 367 

mitted witliout passes from William B. Mann, wbo was pro- 
vost-marshal at the bridge. On one occasion a party, con- 
sisting of a gentleman and two or three ladies, came up the 
hill when I was on duty and requested admission, but not 
having the requisite passes of course I could not permit them 
to enter. They seemed to be very much disappointed and 
one of the ladies asked me whether I really would 
bayonet her if she should attempt to run by, and added 
that I did not look very dangerous. I told her that I 
would not advise her to try such a course, so the ladies 
sat down on the bank, while the gentleman went back to 
procure a pass. He was absent about an hour, during 
which time we carried on a conversation upon various 
matters and they entertained me very agreeably. I 
learned that the principal talker of the party was a Miss 
Schall from Ogdensburg on the Schuylkill, who was very 
well acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and other 
members of the family. Several persons from Phoenix- 
ville came to see us, among others Jerome John and 
Miss Boyle, ^ who were then on their way with hospital 
stores for the wounded at Gettysburg. On the after- 
noon of the ninth, Uncle Joe^ came into the fort 
and found me on drill. The next morning he came 
again bringing a vial of mixture for dysentery, and 
after talking and looking about for some time, he and a 
friend left for the battlefield. 

I was soon afterward put on guard. It is the duty of the 
sentinel to salute an approaching Lieutenant or Captain by 
bringing the piece to a shoulder, any officer above that rank 
by presenting arms. During my watch in'the afternoon a 
supercilious puppy of a Major, who was in undress uniform 
and had a small leaf upon the front of his coat, came riding 

* Rebecca E. Boyle. " J. R. Whitaker. 



368 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

rapidly up, and as he passed me holding my musket at my 
shoulder, cried out in a pompous and insulting tone,. 
" Why don't you come to a present?" I replied, " Why 
don't you wear your straps, then ?" He pointed to the 
leaf on his coat and shouted, " Are you so blind that you 
can't see?" I did not present, however, and he passed on. 
It would have been a great satisfaction to have kicked 
liim. The guards are appointed for twenty-four hours 
and are divided into three reliefs so that each man is on duty 
two hours, and off" the next four. On retaking my post 
that night at ten o'clock the guard of the first relief told 
me, after giving the countersign, that there had been con- 
siderable alarm during his watch, on account of continual 
firing in the woods two or three miles distant, where our 
picket line was, that the long roll had been beaten several 
times, and as something was evidently wrong, it was- 
necessary to be very careful. I determined to be on the 
alert, and a little excitement of the kind answered very 
well to prevent drowsiness. The night was extremely 
dark and every once in a while tliere would be a flash 
and report of musketry from the pickets. The Colonel 
and Major came down and stood by the gate over an hour, 
endeavoring to discover what could be the cause of the 
disturbance. Both thought it was very extraordi}iary, as 
the pickets would not certainly fire in that manner with- 
out some reason for it. They went outside a few paces 
and Lieutenant Richards came to me and enjoined upon 
me to be sure and challenge them as they returned. So 
upon their approach I cried, "Halt! who comes there ?" 
" Oh nonsense," said the Major, and passed in. The 
Colonel finally ordered two additional companies to be 
sent to the line and Company F lo come down and sleep 
by the gate upon their arms. My two hours soon slipped 
away, I heard no more of the disturbance, and never knew 



SIX WEEKS IX UXIFORM. 369 

its origin. Before morning a heavy thunder storm arose 
and the men were thoroughly soaked. I was sound 
asleep in the tent for guards, entirely unconcerned. Some- 
times two hours standing in the eame position without 
being permitted to rest the musket, move from the spot, 
or sit down, seemed very long, and the time, especially in 
the quiet and darkness of night, rolled around slowly. 

(Saturday July 11th.) It is usual for those coming off 
of guard to be excused from drill, and all other duties on 
the following day. Expecting therefore nothing else to 
do this morning, I had concluded to go down to the Sus- 
quehanna, and give myself and clothing a thorough ablu- 
tion. When morning came, however, we were ordered to- 
have everything prepared to strike tents, and police the 
ground, which doubtless was in great need of it. At the 
first sound of the Colonel's whistle, the pins were to be 
drawn ; at the second, tents to be laid over ; at the third,, 
get t® work. In consequence of everything being wet 
from the rain, and the threatening appearance of the clouds, 
the Colonel delayed giving the signal, in the hope that the 
sun might presently come forth, and we were commanded to- 
remain by our tents in readiness at any time to commence 
operations. After waiting for an hour in no very good 
humor, I determined to leave, whatever might be the re- 
sult, and went down to the river, washed out my clothing,, 
took a bath, went to the hospital, and had a chat with 
Rennard, whose cough was still very severe, and returned 
to the fort after an absence of two hours to find them yet 
waiting to hear the whistle. Shortly afterward, the 
police business was postponed until a more suitable occa- 
sion, and we were informed there would be inspection of 
arms by the Major in the morning succeeding. So after 
dinner, I prepared to clean my musket, borrowed the im- 
plements, and had just taken it all apart, and was sitting- 



370 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHrCAL SKETCHES. 

on the bench in front of our tent busily scouring away, 
when the Orderly came along and said, " Pennypacker, 
I'll take you for one." " AVhatfor " I inquired. " Police 
duty," said he. I said, " Why, Orderly, I only came off 
guard this morning." " Can't help it, you'll have to come," 
he replied. I urged further, " My gun is here all in 
pieces, and I can't leave it," and received for an answer, 
" Come on;" so leaving everything lying as it was, with 
the probability of finding half of the articles stolen when 
I returned, I went, in company with some half a dozen 
others and the Orderly, to the upper end of the fort where 
they were making arrangements to erect some large tents 
for General Plall's headquarters. We were first sent for 
spades and shovels, and then shown where to use them. 
There was perhaps half an acre of ground to be cleaned, 
tents to be put up for the General and staff, boards to be 
carried a considerable distance, and cut the proper length 
for the floors, and every prospect of its requiring all the 
afternoon to finish the work. To crown all, the Major, 
whom I had met at the gate in the morning previous had 
charge of matters, but he fortunately did not recognize 
me. I worked with apparent diligence, for perhaps three- 
fourths of an hour, and then watching my opportunity, 
dodged behind some tents and made tracks for the quar- 
ters of Co. F. I was evidently making rapid improve- 
ment in the knowledge of military matters, having dis- 
obeyed orders to my own advantage twice during the day ; 
though for the latter offence, I fully expected to be at 
least put on double duty. There is one thing to be noticed 
in regard to affairs of this kind, which is that a subordi- 
nate officer feels no responsibility for the result of an un- 
dertaking, and consequently does not care what happens 
after he has performed the part entrusted to him. Thus 
it was expected of the Orderly to furnish a certain num- 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 371 

ber of men, he took us up, left us in the proper hands, 
and though he saw me back a very short time afterward, 
he never thought it was any of his business to inquire 
how or why I returned. In the same way it is the duty 
of a guard to prevent any one from crossing his particu- 
lar beat, and of the Commander to see that there are 
guards sufficient to encircle the space which is desired to 
be enclosed, so that if a person should persist in at- 
tempting to go over a portion of the beat, he would prob- 
ably meet the bayonet, but as far as the guard is concerned, 
he could pass two inches beyond those bounds with per- 
fect impunity. When guards were stationed along the 
bank to prevent the men from going down to the river, 
they always told the best way in which they could be 
evaded, to any one who inquired. All the water we 
drank was carried across their line, as that pumped up 
was totally unfit for use. 

(Sunday, July 12th.) Some time during the night, 
marching orders were received. The Captain came around 
and threw a knapsack into each tent, which he said must 
answer the purpose of the whole party. By mutual con- 
sent, I took possession of the one left with us, and put in 
it whatever little matters, belonging to the others, were 
necessary. We were furnished with three days' rations, 
and I also stowed in my haversack, the larger portion of 
the piece of dried beef, which had been sent to me from 
home. It was not yet daylight when we bade farewell 
(thank fortune, a last farewell) to the fort, and marched 
down to the railroad. There entering freight cars in which 
we had the advantage of not being crowded, we started 
down the Cumberland Valley, a part of the State I had 
often longed to see. Before going many miles, the train 
stopped for a time, and as our canteens were empty, we 
filled them from a gutter running along the road, finding 



372 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the water cool and pleasant, but rather muddy. We 
stopped again at Mechanicsburg, where the people told us 
of some of the rebel operations in that vicinity. On ap- 
proaching Carlisle we saw the ruins of the barracks which 
had been destroyed, and in that very pleasant looking town 
we waited over an hour. While sitting here in the cars, 
I saw a man pass by with a large piece of bread and but- 
ter in his hand, in a few minutes another came along, so 
concluding they must have come from somewhere, and that 
considering the provender, that was just the place to suit 
me, I quickly made my way from the cars, and traced the 
provision carriers back two or three squares to a tavern, in 
the kitchen of which an old lady was cutting and spread- 
ing bread as fast as she could handle the knife, and the 
room was full of soldiers waiting their turns. They 
crowded around her so closely that she could scarcely 
move, and she was scolding away with all her might. I 
arrived too late to get any meat, but received a large 
slice of bread and returned to the car. We soon after 
started off", and I with a number of others got up on top of 
the cars, and had a fine view of the country as we passed 
through. About noon we came to Shippensburg which 
was as far as the railroad at that time had been repaired, 
the rebels having destroyed it for 'a great many miles. 
There we met Owen Eachus, whose company was provost- 
guard of the town, also Dr. W. A. Peck of Phoenixville, 
who was Surgeon in charge of the hospital. We stacked 
arms in the street, and sat down on tlie door steps of the 
houses, each one near his own musket. I presently saw 
a lady come to a window on the opposite side of tlie street 
from me and hand out a waiter full of bread and pre- 
serves. A few minutes afterward found me watching 
under the same window, and when the waiter again pro- 
truded, I secured my share. It required some exertion, too, 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 373 

■as there was no lack of applicants. A woman in another 
house who saw the operation said to me as if surprised, 
" Yousens don't go and take what you want like the 
otherens did" referring to the rebels. I was shocked at 
the ignorance with which she placed us in the same 
category. As usual we were curious to know where we 
were bound, and it was reported that we were to go to 
Scotland bridge to guard some point there, which turned 
out to be a mistake. 

About half after one we commenced our march. It was 
one of those hot and sultry days, which tend to make 
gven a person in perfect inactivity feel feverish and un- 
pleasant, when not a breath of air was stirring, and the 
very atmosphere we inhaled seemed almost to suffocate. 
We had not proceeded far before we were covered with 
dust and our clothing soaked with perspiration, which 
rolled from us in streams. For some reason we went 
an unusually long distance without taking a rest, and 
before we stopped several of the men had fallen over 
from the effects of the heat. Among others Ford, who 
was walking a few paces from me, suddenly pitched 
over on his face in the road, and was picked up sense- 
less. The Colonel ordered him to be carried into a 
house and Roily remained with him. He was after- 
ward taken back to the hospital at Shippensburg and 
left in the care of Dr. Peck, who promised to give him 
every attention, A short time subsequent to that we 
halted in an apple orchard and stayed there over an hour, 
and a moist breeze having arisen, threatening a thunder 
storm, the rest of the march, though longer, was not so 
fatiguing. While at the orchard, wishing to make my 
load as light as possible, I gave the Sergeant-Major a 
large piece of my dried beef. At many of the houses 
which we passed the people stood at their gates with 



374 HISTORICAL and biographical sketches. 

buckets and tubs and gave water to those who wanted it. 
It was very thoughtful and I know their kindness wa& 
appreciated. The custom in marching is to keep in ranks 
and step through the towns, but in the open roads the 
command is given "route step, arms at will," and each 
one is at liberty to walk as best suits his convenience. 

Our next stopping place was a small village called 
Greenville. Here, while sitting by the roadside, two little 
boys, scarcely old enough to wear breeches, came along 
asking the men for their canteens in order to fill them. 
I was pleased with the idea of children coming on such 
an errand, and when one of then approached me, wishing 
to hear him talk, I inquired whether he had seen the 
rebels. " Yes," he said, " they were naughty men ; they 
took my little dog," and in sorrowful accents he told rae 
further that his dog was black and had a white spot on 
his tail. A large flag was hung across the road and each 
company as it passed underneath cheered lustily for the 
stars and stripes. It was nearly dark when we reached 
Chambersburg, after a march of some twelve miles during 
the afternoon. There was a large army of militia en- 
camped in that neighborhood, comprising, I suppose, 
many thousands, though I am unable to form any definite 
idea as to the exact number. Apparently there was 
some hesitation and doubt as to where we were to go, 
but finally we were taken to a clover field on the right 
side of the pike, belonging to Ool. A. K. McClure, and 
there stacked arms. From the aspect of the clouds, we 
were apprehensive of rain before morning, but as the 
facilities for putting up tents were exceedingly slim, we 
spread our blankets upon the ground and went to sleep, 
trusting the weather to fortune. Upon that occasion the 
fickle goddess favored us and we remained dry. 

(Monday, July 13th.) Doc. Nyceaud I went to a house 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 375 

on the outskirts of the town and ate breakfast, for which 
we paid twenty-five cents each. It was the first time we 
had eaten from a table since leaving home, and I never 
enjoyed a meal more. It seemed to me I could not get 
enough of those short-cakes to satisfy myself, and they 
disappeared in a most miraculous manner. On returning 
to the muskets, I sat down upon a large stone in the cen- 
tre of the field and wrote a letter to mother, which a boy 
promised to put in the Post Ofhce for me. It soon after 
commenced raining very hard and we took shelter under 
a sort of archway which crossed the pike at the toll gate. 
Becoming tired of waiting there, I proposed to Nyce to 
go in and have a look at the town. There was a cer- 
tainty of our getting wet ; a probability of being arrested 
by the provost and sent to the guard-house ; a possibility 
of the regiment moving off during our absence and leaving 
ns in the lurch ; but knowing that if we did not risk 
something we could see but little, in we started. Follow- 
ing the pike for some distance we turned to the left, 
crossed the Gonecocheague, a rapid stream which runs 
directly through the centre of the town, and went to the 
hospital, where we saw a number of greyback prisoners 
who were confined there. We endeavored to find some 
cakes in the stores, but there was not anything of the 
kind in the place ; all having been consumed and the 
bakeries stopped. We then concluded to go to the d^pot 
and take a view of the depredations which the rebels had 
committed there. All of the buildings belonging to the 
railroad company were in ruins. The plan adopted for 
their destruction was to batter in the walls with heavy 
bars until the structure fell. I was at a loss to understand 
why they had not applied fire and thus saved themselves 
from what must have required a great deal of labor. All 
the machinery which could be injured had been rendered 



376 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

useless, and even the large masses of iron exhibited the 
marks of blows from sledge hammers. A boy who was 
there told us that one of the " rebs " had been crushed 
beneath the walls when they fell and was still buried 
among the rubbish. As it was then nearly noon, we 
thought it would be well to try and get some dinner 
before returning to camp ; so, going to a house, we inquired 
•of the lady whether we could get a meal there, were 
answered in the affirmative, and sat down to a table at 
which we ate a tremendous quantity. Afterward, on asking 
the price, the lady told us she would never charge a union 
soldier for a meal while she had food in her house, and 
positively refused to accept any mone}'' whatever. Con- 
sidering the number of men who were hunting around 
ready to devour everything of an edible nature, and the 
great scarcity of provisions caused by tlie presence of 
both armies, such generosity was extremely laudable. On 
going back to the muskets, I heard that one of the coal 
regiments was encamped on the other side of the pike, 
about half a mile off, and knowing that Charlie Roberts 
was a 1st Lieutenant in it, I concluded to go and see him. 
After a long hunt I found his tent and looked in, but as 
three of them were inside fast asleep I did not disturb 
them. That afternoon we were given another supply of 
rations, among other things sugar and coffee were divided. 
I did not care about the coffee, but I drew my own sugar 
and that of some eight or ten others, who did not want to 
be bothered carrying it, and gave me permission to take 
it in their names. I stowed in my haversack all that I 
could get and found it a very agreeable article to have 
soon afterward. 

Toward evening, being ordered to fall in, the Colonel 
told us we would only have to march about three miles to 
a better location for a ramp, where we would join our 



SIX WEEKS TN UNIFORM. 377 

brigade, frpm which we had been separated at the fort. 
We marched through the town and about a mile and a 
half further to a wood on the left of the pike, where we 
pitched tents beside the others, thinking we would prob- 
ably remain there a few days. We soon heard, however, 
that we were to start again in the morning, and a rumor 
was flying about that Meade had captured Lee's entire 
army at Williamsport, and we were going on to escort 
the prisoners back. We were very much pleased with 
the news, but the idea of making a double trip on foot 
across Maryland was not so agreeable. It turned out to 
be a canard, however. 

(Tuesday, July 14th.) The camp was only a few rods 
from the railroad, and early in the morning I went to it 
to see what was the method of destroying the track. The 
rails were laid in heaps along the road, all of them across 
gutters or hollow places so that both ends were supported 
upon the bank. Then the sills were heaped underneath the 
centre and set on fire, and when the iron became 
hot and soft it bent from its own weight. In this way 
both sills and rails were rendered useless. In one place we 
saw some rails which while hot had been wound around a 
tree. We were told that the track was in this condition 
for seven miles, and that several thousand men were 
engaged in the work. How those fellows managed to 
make such long daily marches, and at the same time scour 
the country so effectually for miles and accomplish so 
much bard labor, was more than I could understand. 

We had expected to leave at 4 A. M., but there was- 
the usual amount of delay and ceremony, so that it was- 
quite late before we received orders. Before starting the 
Colonel made a little speech to us, saying that we would 
then for the first time, march with the brigade, and from 

his acquaintance with our past performances he knew we 

24 



378 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

could walk away from anything on the ground, especially 
as the greater number of the others were city chaps. 
There was one wagon belonging to our regiment, and 
those who were sick or unable to carry their baggage, 
were allowed to have it hauled. Of course, the accommo- 
dation was restricted to a very few, but Roily who was 
favored in that respect, succeeded in getting his blanket 
and my knapsack taken as his own, a relief for which I 
was very thankful. He thought he would not be able to 
keep up, but said he intended to hold on as long as possible. 
One regiment after another to the number of four or five 
came winding out of the woods and took position along 
the pike until all were stretched out in one long line. We 
brought up the rear which is by far the most difficult 
station on a march, for the following reasons : It is usual 
to rest about ten minutes in each half hour at the head of 
the column. Now wherever there is a break in the road 
such as a mud puddle, a run or something of that nature, 
each man of course hesitates an instant either to choose 
his way or make a jump. This seems to be but a little 
matter, but as it is increased at every rank, by the time 
the rear is reached it frequently becomes many minutes. 
Let us suppose that each rank of two men loses only one 
second at a run, which is certainly a very moderate 
estimate. In a regiment of eight hundred men this would 
be 400 seconds, and in four such regiments 1600 seconds 
or twenty-seven minutes expended at every crossing which 
have to be made up from the " rests," or by running, and 
consequently the rear generally gets up to the place for a 
halt too late to be benefitted by it. Soon after we started 
the clouds cleared away and the sun shone out warmly. 
The pike was so cut up by the passage of two armies and 
their wagons during the heavy rains, that the water in 
some places stood knee deep, and rendered travelling 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 379 

■upon it almost impracticable. We were compelled to 
make a detour by some side roads on the right, and in this 
way lengthened our journey considerably. Even then we 
marched a good part of the time in the fields on account 
of the ill condition of the roads. A guard was placed in 
the rear of each regiment to pick up all who straggled 
without a pass from the Surgeon, and at nearly every 
halt the roll was called before we were permitted to sit 
down. Sometimes the Orderly would be interrupted in 
the midst of it by that never-ceasing command, " Fall in." 
Those who were absent on such occasions were marked 
for guard duty the next night. To guard against sun- 
stroke, I filled my cap with leaves and every once in a 
while poured water on them from my canteen. The 
march that morning on account of the heat was very hard, 
and before noon we were continually passing men lying 
in the fence corners and along the road completely over- 
come. Some of them died from the effects of the sun. I 
think fully one-fourth of one of the Philadelphia regiments 
straggled, and I overheard Colonel Jennings as he was 
looking at some of them, rather sneeringly remark " city 
fellows," a class for whom he apparently had a contem.pt. 
Often some poor, tired creature would start the ciy of 
^'rest," which then ran all along the column, but it seldom 
had any influence upon the officers who rode upon horse- 
back and having nothing to carry, of course, were unable 
to tell by experience how much the privates endured. It 
is well it is so, for I am afraid if the commanders had to 
go on foot and carry their own baggage there would be 
very little progress made. I was still very much troubled 
with diarrhoea, and at times had very severe pain. Roily 
kept up with a great deal of difficulty, and very early threw 
away a small piece of pork and his tinplate with the ex- 
clamation, "D n it Sam, I've got to comedown to 



380 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

light raarchino; order." About one o'clock we halted in fs 
wood and stacked arms, when he threw himself down oii 
the ground beside the guns and lay there upon his back 
without a movement until we started on in the afternoon. 
I ate some dinner and slept for perhaps an hour. The 
remainder of the march was comparatively easy, and about 
dusk we arrived at a mill dam uyon the opposite side of 
which, and a mile from Greencastle, was our destined 
camp. Close at hand was a farm house occupied as the 
headquarters of General Dana, whom we had met upon 
the road and saluted a short time before. There was no- 
way of crossing the dam except walking around the breast 
which took up so much time that it was quite dark when 
we reached the top of the hill and settled for the night. 
We were all in want of water, but complained of feeling 
too tired to get any, so having tried in vain to persuade 
some of the others to go, I took two or three canteens and 
filled them from a pump at a farm house which I dis- 
covered not far off. Roily and I then spreading one 
blanket out upon the clover and covering ourselves with 
the other, went to sleep. During the night a storm arose 
and we were awakened by the rain beating in our faces,^ 
while I found my leg soaking in a puddle of water. We put 
the blanket over our heads, however, and slept until 
morning in spite of the rain. 

(Wednesday, July 15th.) We expected to march again 
early, so rolling up our wet blankets. Roily made the 
same arrangement in regard to them which had succeeded 
so well the day before. Several hours having slipped 
away without any indications of a movement, we learned 
that Sergeant Meigs, with a squad from our company 
had been sent to hunt up some cattle for beef, which 
looked as if the intention was to remain there for some 
time, and we were heartily glad of it. Later in the day. 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 381 

it was reported that Gov. Ciirtin was coming down to see 
us on some business. A large number of troops forming 
several brigades had arrived during the night and were 
continually coming in, so that the hill was covered over 
with them. Two or three sutlers also made their appear- 
ance with loaded wagons, which were soon emptied. 
Among other things they had a supply of Philadelphia 
newspapers, a day or two old. Cheese was a standing 
article with them and was greedily bought up at about 
twenty-five cents per pound. After dinner I went down 
to the creek to wash and found the stream as far as I 
■could see it lined along the bank with men cleaning their 
clothes and bodies. The water, in consequence, was 
muddy and dirty, but answered the purpose better than 
none at all. On returning Roily, " Tucker" and myself put 
up a tent and having plenty of time, we procured a light 
ridge pole and good, strong pins. In the evening I wit- 
nessed the sport of tossing from a blanket. Four men 
take hold of the corners of a blanket, and getting some 
fellow on it throw him up into the air and catch him again 
as he falls. It is rather a dangerous amusement for the 
one thrown, as several instances have occurred in which 
his neck was broken by the fall. 

(Thursday, July IGtli.) Nearly all of the regiments 
moved on towards Hagerstown. We had marching orders, 
but on the receipt of the intelligence of Lee's successful 
retreat over the Potomac at Williamsport, they were 
<;ountermanded and Colonel Jennings was made Acting 
Brigadier and placed in command of the camp. Had 
Lee delayed one day longer, and Meade made his in- 
tended attack, it is very probable we would have taken 
part in a severe battle, as we were only a march of a day 
and a half distant from the scene of operations, and the 
•struggle ia which the former staked the existence of his 



382 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCHKS. 

army, perhaps of the Confederacy, and the latter com- 
plete victory, would doubtless have been terrific. 

Early in the morning we struck tents and moved to a 
more pleasant location on the edge of a wood. Here, by 
permission, five of us, Rhodes, Landis, Roily, Nyce and I 
put up a tent together, and through the increased length 
had room enough to be comfortable. We took considerable 
pains to have it nice, selected a good position on the slope 
of the ground so that it could be readily drained, elevated 
it about the right lieight, put fence rails along the inner 
edges, stretched the muslin out to make it tio;ht and firm, 
dug drains and gutters all around, and when our work was 
completed, had, without exception, the best tent in the 
company. We also admitted " Tucker," who had lost his 
piece of tent while at Fort Couch. Desiring to see Green- 
castle, I persuaded Rhodes and " Tucker " to accompany 
me, and we started off across the fields for the town, which 
was about a mile distant. Meeting several who were 
returning from there we inquired of them whether we 
could get in without passes. Some said we could, by 
dodging, and others told us there was a picket on the road 
near the outskirts of tlie place, arresting all who had 
not the necessary documents, and even if we escaped 
them, we would be certain to be captured by the provosts. 
Determined, nevertheless, to risk it, we proceeded, and 
when in sight of the picket party struck ofi^ to the 
right through a cornfield, and making a wide circuit, came 
into the town from th^. rear. Jumping over a garden fence,, 
we cautiously entered one of the back streets and seeing 
a couple of men ahead in uniform we followed tliem at the 
distance of a half a square. At the very next corner they 
ran arainst a squad of guards coming down a cross-street 
and were marched off. We dodged behind a stable and 
waited until they had departed, then emerging from our 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 38B 

hiding place we went to a house and asked the woman 
whether she could get us some dinner. Slie said she had 
not mucli in the house, but if we chose would get ready 
for us all she could. So one of us was stationed at the 
front, another at the back door to give the alarm upon 
the approach of the provosts, while she cooked dinner, 
which consisted of fried flitch, cabbage, potatoes, molasses, 
bread and butter, and rye coilee. During its preparation 
she entertained us with accounts of the rebels, telling how 
" sassy " they were, how they scared a young man into 
fits from the effects of which he died, how she cursed 
them to their faces, something that judging from her 
appearance and manners she was very able to do, and 
how she threatened to cut their throats with the huge 
butcher knife witli which she was then slicing the bread. 
Shortly after a young fellow, one of Milroy's men, who 
was staying there, and her daughter came in with a 
bucket full of blackberries and she gave us each a saucer 
full. We paid her twenty-five cents a piece and then 
went further in town to the main street, where we bought 
some little articles. On comino- back we chanced to see 
a woman taking some pies out of an oven and thinking 
they would suit us exactly, we hurried into the yard 
eager to make a purchase. At first she positively refused 
to part with any, saying she wanted them for her family, 
but after some cajolery she finally consented to let us have 
two or three. We carried them into camp by the same 
route we had come. There they told us Governor Gurtin 
was on the ground addressing the men, and soon after- 
ward he came over to our regiment, and though he was 
very hoarse made a short speech. He said among other 
things that there was every prospect of the " emergency " 
being over and our being sent home in a few days ; but 
beingr of one Gommonwealth, no Pennsvlvanian had a 



38i HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

right to sleep quietly at home while these people of the 
border were driven from their habitations and their prop- 
€rtv despoiled ; that when they had returned with the 
probability of remaining undisturbed, we might consider 
our services finished. Upon the conclusion of his remarks 
we gave him three cheers and he diove off. 

(Friday, July 17th.) A number of cattle were brought 
in for beef, and shot. I had acquired a disgust for fresh 
beef from a singularly unpleasant taste, which the 
method of preparation gave it, and from seeing our dirty 
cook holding the pieces down on the ground with his filthy 
het while he cut them off with an axe. When, however, 
we could manage to get hold of some of the raw meat 
and fry it ourselves I could eat it with great relish. I 
liked the salt pork much better than beef, and generally 
ate the proportion of two or three men, as some of them 
■would scarcely touch it. A dislike to the coffee had also 
grown upon me, and I drank water altogether. At a 
farm house a few fields from where we were encamped 
was the finest spring of water I ever saw anywhere, being 
almost as cold as ice and affording an inexhaustible sup- 
ply. Much nearer and directly in front of the camp, 
underneath a steep hill, were several smaller though 
equally good springs which we used principally. Small 
pipes made from the bark of trees had been fitted in them 
for the water to run through as it came from the bank, 
which materially assisted in filling the canteens. Every 
morning early we went there for that purpose and to 
wash in the delightfully cool and fresh stream. It is one 
of the most important considerations to have a camp 
where there is plenty of good water. Pumps are very 
frequently exhausted by the continual use, from which 
results one beneficial effect, the supply is usually cold and 
agreeable. That, region abounds in raspberries, black- 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 385 

. berries, &c., and I consumed great quantities of them. I 
found th'ey did me much good, cured me of the diar- 
rhoea, and I soon began to get fat. We had them 
ahnost daily at our meals for desert, and in this way used 
the sugar that I brought from Chambersburg. Roily was 
detailed to guard a man's house from depredators, and 
was very well pleased with the situation, as they cooked 
his rations nicely for him and added to them beside. 
Mike cut my hair for me close to the head in military 
style. Numbers of the men scattered abroad in all 
directions to " forage," and though some of them were 
brought in once in a while by the cavalry to the guard 
house and strict orders were issued against it, I concluded 
it was the right way to get along and see the country. 
We were drilled regularly by the lieutenant Colonel, 
who had such an odd tone of voice that no one could 
understand his orders, sometimes he would shout " shoulder 
arms, order arms, support arms," entirely contrary to the 
manual, and would be obeyed by some reluctantly by 
others not at all. On one occasion he cursed the Adjutant 
up and down for a mistake evidently made by himself, 
upon a review of the brigade by Colonel Jennings. 

(Saturday, July 18th.) After drill. Doc. Nyce and I 
started on a foraging expedition. For two or three miles 
we kept pretty closely along the pike, which had been 
terribly broken up by the heavy baggage trains and 
artillery. As a proof of how little it was then used, at 
different places we saw quantities of corn growing several 
inches high right in the middle of it. We found in that 
distance three or four wagons and caissons whose spokes 
had been cut and wheels destroyed after they had given 
way on the retreat. Shells, rebel clothing, haversacks, 
(fee, were scattered about plentifully. We visited two or 
three of their camps and at one of them in a wood, Nyce 



386 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

picked up a ramrod and presented it to me. At the two 
first houses to which we appHed for dinner they told us 
they actually had nothing to eat themselves, but at the 
third we were more fortunate and procured a very good 
meal of meat and vegetables. They said the " rebs " had 
gone into the cellar, filled their canteens with molasses 
from the hogshead and emptied the remainder on the floor,, 
served the vinegar and other articles in the same way, 
stolen all their chickens, cows and horses, carried from the 
barn the rakes, pitchforks, &c., and wantonly destroyed 
many things they could not use. There was scarcely a 
horse left in that part of the country, a clean sweep 
having been made of those animals. In one secret spot 
among some bushes by the side of a creek, Doc. and I saw 
a place that looked as if some had been bidden there for 
safety, from the many marks of their feet upon the ground. 
We were gathering raspberries at the time, and pushing 
pretty far into the bushes, happened to meet with it. A 
large proportion of the wheat, though dead ripe, still stood 
uncut in the fields, from the want of horses to haul it in, 
and I have no doubt that a great deal was lost. On our 
way back we stopped in a barn where some of the rebels 
had slept and gathered up a number of letters and other 
documents left behind by them. What was of greater 
present value, I found a hen's nest with five eggs in it 
and immediately took possession of the contents without 
hesitation and left no nest egg either. On reaching 
camp we boiled them in our tin cups and had a dainty 
supper. 

(Sunday, July 19th,) The Major inspected arms about 
ten o'clock. After that was concluded I started off on 
another tour, this time unaccompanied, and wandered 
along the railroad for a couple of miles picking and eating 
raspberries as T went. I then turned ofi' to the right on 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOEM. 387 

Borae back road, and after getting my dinner at a farm 
house, came across a path where the berries were very fine 
and plentiful, and filHng my pocket handkerchief with 
about two quarts of them, carried it into camp for 
the other fellows. Renshaw, who had received new-! of 
the death of his brother from wounds inflicted at the 
battle of Gettysburg, with considerable difficulty succeeded 
in getting a furlough for a few days to attend his funeral 
and left for Phoenixville. The next day Ford's father 
brought on a box of provisions for his son, who was lying 
sick at Shippensburg, and came into camp expecting to 
find him with us. Being disappointed, however, he left 
the box for Rhodes, and as it contained a couple of 
chickens, bread and butter, cake, cheese, jelly, &c., we 
had a regular feast at his expense. 

(Tuesday, July 21st.) Early in the morning those who 
had been guarding the farm houses in the vicinity were 
recalled, and about nine o'clock we struck tents and 
started by the pike towards Chambersburg in jovial spirits 
"homeward bound." On the way we passed a barn in 
which was lying a rebel soldier who had been wounded 
through the neck at Gettysburg, and they said he was in 
a miserable condition without having anyone to attend to 
his wants. That day's march was the easiest we had 
experienced, from two causes, first, because there was a 
strong cool wind blowing, which was very exhilarating ; 
and second, our Colonel who had command of the brigade, 
was very careful to see that we were placed in the advance. 
Late in the afternoon we arrived at our previous camp 
near Chambersburg, and Roily, Nyce and I put up a tent 
together, being expressly forbidden to niake them more 
than the usual length. Soon afterward I was detailed for 
guard, and the Sergeant Major who was posting us said 
to me, " Nyce you will be Colonel's Orderly — report at 



388 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

headquarters without your rnusket." It was a very 
shigular thing that many of the men said that Nyce and 
I resembled each other so much they could not tell us 
apart. I was frequently saluted as " Nyce " and he by 
my name, though he was nearly six feet high and much 
heavier. I went t® the Colonel's tent and upon car- 
rying some orders around to the different companies in 
the dark, was dismissed for the night, about nine o'clock 
with instructions to report again in the morning. 

(Wednesday, July 22d.) The Major took the Captains 
^nd Lieutenants off some distance to drill them in the 
manual, and I was sent to order the best drilled Sergeant 
in the companies to take the men out for the same purpose. 
At eight o'clock, at guard mounting, I was relieved by 
Smith, a son of the President of the Reading Railroad. 
Scheetz was the Sergeant selected in our company, and he 
drilled us in the following style : marched two or three 
fields off to be comfortably out of sight, formed under a 
large tree, "shoulder arms, order arms, shoulder arms, 
stack arms, break ranks, march," and we lay there on the 
grass until the two hours were over, and then returned to 
the tents. It suited the men exactly. We paid up for it, 
however, in the afternoon on battalion drill under the 
Lieutenant Colonel. During the day a great many women 
■came into camp with baskets of pies and molasses cakes 
for sale. Nearly all were sold, but they were miserable, 
unwholesome things. The crusts were almost as touo;h as 
sole leather, and the contents of the poorest kind as a 
general thing. In the night Nyce was taken sick with 
something like cramp, and as he suffered a great deal of 
pain I took a tin cup and went to the Surgeon's tent for 
some medicine for him. It was extremely dark, but 
knowing the direction of the Surgeon's quarters I found 
them without much trouble except tumbling over some 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 389' 

ropes. I aroused him, procured the mediciue, and started 
back in so much of a hurry that I lost my way completely 
and was brought up suddenly by a "halt" from one of 
the guards at the officers' tent of Company B. He seemed 
at first unwilling to permit me to pass, but when I stated 
the case to him, he felt the letters on my cap and the tin 
cup in my hand, and said it was contrary to orders, but 
he guessed it would be all right. Knowing then which 
way to turn I soon found the tent, and on swallowing the 
preparation Nyce became easier. 

(Thursday, July 23d.) A young fellow from our com- 
pany, named Nat. Hobart, who had been left at Gettys- 
burg, and had seen the battle with all the military trans- 
actions there, came into camp. He presented to me some- 
caps that he had taken from the boxes of some of the 
dead rebels. Several "emergency" regiments passed us 
on their way to Harrisburg to be mustered out, also, a 
large squad of rebels prisoners went by under guard. We 
all ran out to see them, and as we stood along; the edcre of 
the road, one of them said to another, " there's that 
Twenty-sixth that we drove from Gettysburg." 

After dinner I, with a number of others, was detailed 
under Sergeant Scheetz to dig a couple of privies, and had 
a chance of handling the spade and shovel for a couple of 
hours. They are made about fifteen feet long, two wide, 
and three deep. Then a fork cut from a tree and made 
the proper length is fixed firmly at each end of the trench 
and a sapling laid across so as to be supported by the 
forks. 

There was consideral dissatisfaction manifested by the 
men toward our Quartermaster, whom they accused of 
not supplying the usual quantity of meat and other 
rations. They said that in order to make money he sold 
what was due to them, and their dislike was expressed by 



390 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

hissing, hooting and groaning wherever he appeared. 
Some even talked loudly about mobbing him. I do not 
know what were the merits of the case, but it is certain 
the rations were frequently very slim. Roily had been 
quite unwell for several days, and was scarcely able to eat 
anything — the rations did not ?-uit him at all. 

(Friday, July 24th.) Nyce and I tried to get a pass to 
go into town and having failed, concluded to go upon our 
•own authority. We started soon after dinner and in- 
quired of several coming out, whether the provosts were 
on the alert. As usual they were very unsatisfactory, 
some answering in the affirmative and others in the 
negative. We walked boldly up the pike and had 
scarcely entered the town when we saw a squad about a 
square off coming toward us, so we turned quickly to the 
left and went around by one of the back unfrequented 
streets, running parallel with the pike, which we followed 
for several squares. Seeing some little fellows playing with 
old bayonets, we asked where they had got them and 
they told us the " rebs" had left them at the depot on 
vacating the premises. We offered to give them four 
cents for two of the weapons, to which the urchins readily 
agreed, and promised to keep them for us until we re- 
turned. One went along to show us where there was a 
bakery. It was on the Main street, and a woman at the 
counter told us that men were nabbed in the store every 
day. She kept watch at the door, and the person who 
waited on us had just finished tying up some cakes and 
other little things we had bought, when she turned around 
and said, " Here they come." We snatched up our things, 
struck out through the back door, across two or three 
gardens and private yards, clambered over a high board 
fence, and did not etop until we had reached a safe 
distance. Getting our bayonets, we started for the Cone- 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 391 

•cocbeague creek, and following along the bank to a good 
place for bathing, out of sight of the town, we stripped off 
our clothes and took a swim. The water was very cold 
from coming directly from springs. In a short walk, we 
counted I think a dozen. We hurried out on account of 
an approaching thunder shower, and reached camp shortly 
after it commenced raining. About this time we heard of 
the riots in New York, and it was rumored that Governor 
Ourtin had offered our services to assist in quelling them. 
Some of the fellows were uneasy about it, especially one 
poor man by the name of Lockhardt, whom all delighted 
to tantalize with these floating reports, because of his 
aversion to the service, and his anxiety to get home. He 
was terribly afraid of being drafted and since then, 
actually had the misfortune to draw a prize in Uncle Sam's 
lottery. Another was Van. Missimer, a big, fat, lazy fellow, 
who was assistant cook, and who could generally be seen 
sitting upon his beam end on a log, watching dirty Mike 
blow his nose with his fingers over the camp kettle in 
which the meal was being prepared. 

Saturday, July 25th. In the morning we had no drill, 
but were all at work policing the ground, cleaning things 
up and burning the trash about the place. We con- 
sidered this a certain indication of a movement as we had 
previously policed at the fort, Greencastle, and every camp 
at which we stopped, before leaving it. After the work 
was accomplibhed, Nyce and I went to a farm house and 
got our dinners. The lady said she had fed a large num- 
ber of the rebel officers, who were generally very polite, 
and paid in their scrip, but they had taken from the farm 
six horses without any compensation. I bought from her 
a five dollar blue-back confederate note, for which I gave 
her fifty cents. In the afternoon we had a tremendously 
heavy storm, which completely flooded the camp, beat 



392 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

through the tents as if tliey had been made of paper, and 
streams of water Hke httle rivulets poured underneath, 
wetting our blankets and everything else. Some were 
entirely drowned out and emerged "to stand the storm," 
looking like so many soaked rats. We were more 
fortunate than many, in having our tent pretty well 
drained, but were, nevertheless, thoroughly watered. 
After the rain had somewhat slackened, we endeavored 
to arrange things as comfortably as possible, but about 
dark we were informed that we would leave for Harris- 
burg before morning, so there was no sleeping to be done 
that night. The men were in excellent spirits, with 
the prospect of going home, and gathering together all 
the brush, fence rails, logs and wood of any kind that 
could be found near, they made a bonfire of them and 
kept it burning until we marched. The Captain had a 
few potatoes in his tent, which were brought out and some 
of them eaten, while the remainder were used for throwing 
at each other's heads for amusement. We took down our 
tent and dried it with the blankets by the fire, and packed 
them up in our knapsacks in order to be in readiness 
when the Colonel's whistle should be heard. AVhile 
waiting, a mail arrived, which contained for me two copies 
of the " Phoenix" and a letter from Lloyd in answer to 
one I had written to him a few days before. About two 
o'clock the sound of a whistle rang through the wood, 
and with a shout we " fell in" and were soon on tlie road. 
It was still raining, exceedingly dark, and as we went 
sometimes on the pike and then in the fields, we had 
a regular time of it slipping into mud puddles and 
scrambling over fence rails, before we reached Chambers- 
burg. We were then packed in dirty freight cars, forty 
in each, so that in sitting down, our legs had to be inter- 
twined, and at four o'clock moved slowly away. It was 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 393 

not intended we bIiouIcI leave that night, the turn of 
another regiment coming ahead of ours, and no orders had 
been issued to our Colonel to that effect; but having learned 
that transportation was awaiting the Twenty-seventh 
regiment, and knowing how to take advantage of circum- 
stances, by management he had everything prepared, 
hurried us on the cars in the night before they had ar- 
rived, and was off" before anyone was aware that a mistake 
had been made. We returned by the sauie route we had 
gone down, and nothing worthy of mention occurring 
on the way, we again came within sight of Harrisburg 
on the afternoon of the 26th of July. Disembarking 
from the cars, we marched to the foot of the hill, upon 
which f-tood the fort, and then pitched tents in a field. 
We expected to be mustered out next day, but our past 
experience of the delay attending military matters should 
have taught us better. 

(Monday, July 27th.) Rennard had been removed to 
a hospital in Harrisburg and, having discovered his 
whereabouts, I wrote a letter to him telling him be had 
better come over and join his company. The Captains 
were very busy making out their muster rolls, and an 
advertisement was published in one of the papers warning 
all paroled prisoners and absentees to make their appear- 
ance immediately. Our company soon became quite full 
again, and some of the new comers I did not remember 
having seen before. Two men who had deserted were 
compelled to carry logs up and down before the tents as a 
punishnoent. Roily received a letter from home saying 
that a box of provisions had been sent to him a week or so 
before, and learning that it was then lying in the depot, 
he prevailed on the Colonel to give a pass for him and me 
to go after it. At the bridge the guards said it would 

have to be countersigned by the Commandant of the post, 

25 



394 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHTOAL SKETCHES. 

SO I went up into the fort to seek ior that officer. The 
place was entirely deserted, except by the Dutch Artillery 
company, wliose Captain was the man I wanted, and 1 
found him in his tent playing cards. He signed my pass, 
I left the fort by way of the old bank, and was never in 
it afterward. At the depot we were unable to find the 
box, and notwithstandino; all my efforts Roily insisted on 
telegraphing to Phoenixville that we would be there in a 
day or two. On our way back we stopped in a hardware 
store to be weighed, and he had come down to two hun- 
dred, having lost fifty pounds, while I stood at my old figure 
of one hundred and thirty. When we returned to camp we 
learned tiiat mustei-ing out had been stopped on account of a 
rumor that the i-ebels liud again appeared in the State, 
and it was said we were to start down the valley again 
on the moiTOw. It would have been amusing to an un- 
intei'ested party to have seen how crest fallen every one 
seemed, and what a number of solemn faces were to be 
met with. I must acknowledge that J felt very un- 
pleasantly on tlie subject. While we were down below I 
could have remained there indefinitely, or gone further 
without any painful sensation in regard to home, but 
when we started on the return, my thoughts were en- 
gaged in forming anticipations of the pleasure of meeting, 
and wandered continually in that direction, so that the 
news we had received acted like a wet cloth. The 
Harrisburg paper of the next morning, however, said the 
report was a canard, and the business was resumed. 

(Tuesday, July 28th.) Rennard came into camp early 
and was still troubled with a cough. Nyce and George 
Meigs were sent down to Dillsburg for some muskets 
which had been left there, and returned with two or three. 
In the afternoon we marched over to Camp Curtin and 
deposited our nmskets in the same armory from which we 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM, 395 

had taken them. Goino; through the bridge in column, 
we stirred up such a cloud of dust that we were almost 
suffocated, and being completel}^ oovei-ed with it, found it 
necessary to take a wash in the Susquehanna afterward. 
Mat. Anderson, who was a private in the Twenty-seventh, 
came over to see us in the evening and s|)ent some time. 

(Thursday, «Tuly 30th.) The reason of so much delay 
in mustering out was that the musterins; officer, Bush, was 
more fond of carousing about the hotels of Ilarrisburg 
than attending to his business. The Colonel, however, 
fastened on to him somewhere and brought him over, de- 
termined that he should not escape until our regiment 
was mustered out. " Well, but Colonel," I heard him 
say, " I must go over and get my dinner," " No you don't. 
Bush," replied the Colonel, " I will order dinner for you 
here, chickens, turkey or anything you want." So in the 
afternoon we marched by companies to the farmhouse in 
which he was quartered, answered to our names as the 
roll was called, and that ceremony was concluded, bring- 
ing us one step nearer the end. The weather was very 
warm and we found lying on our backs in the tents an 
exceedingly monotonous employment. There were several 
of Beadle's dime novels circulated about which served to 
pass away the time. Toward night General Stahl rode 
through camp and mistaking him for General Sigel we 
gave him three cheers. 

(Friday, July 31st.) I was put on water duty for 
absence at roll-call the night before, having gone to sleep 
in ray tent and not hearing the drum. Our Commissary 
Sergeant gave us three or four loaves of fresh bread, part 
of whicii we fried in the pork fat and it made a very 
palatable dish. 

(Saturday, August 1st.) In the morning we delivered 
up our tents, blankets, haversacks and canteens, and were 



396 HISTORICAL AM) HIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCIIKS. 

left with nothing but our cloth.ing of those things with 
which we were supplied by government. The accoutre- 
ments and knapsacks belonged to Pottstown. About the 
middle of the afternoon the Adjutant read a farewell 
order from the Colonel. We gave three times three to 
both of those officers and shouting good bye to Company 
A. we (F.) marched over to the farm house and were paid 
off. I received $19.26, some of the others rather more 
on account of having been sworn in sooner. From there 
we went to Harrisburg, and after getting our suppers at 
various places (Nyce and I at a restaurant), about seven 
P. M., we started in freight cars down the Lebanon Valley. 
Some of the fellows had taken the opportunity of imbibing 
enough to make them very drunk, and getting on top of 
the cars, fell fast asleep there. They were in continual 
danger of tumbling off and the conductor told us that one 
fellow from Lebanon had rolled upon the track. He 
thought the man must have been killed, so the others were 
carried down and put inside. Two came staggering into 
our car, and, after vomiting all around in a manner to 
make themselves as disagreeable companions as could well 
be found, threw themselves down on the floor, and were 
soon snoring away in perfect unconsciousness of every 
thing. It was a beautiful, clear, and moonlight night, the 
scenery along the road could be distinguished almost as 
readily as if it had been day, and Lieutenant Richards and 
I sat by the side opening of the car looking at the fields, 
woods and villages as they rolled rapidly by, without feel- 
ing the least inclination to sleep. At Lebanon we parted 
with the Major and his company. The people of that place 
had very kindly ])rovided a tub of ice-water with three or 
four dippers in it for Company F, and we carried it on to 
our car thankful for tlie thoughtfulness displayed as well 
as the real benefit of the gift. Between two and three 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFORM. 397 

o'clock we arrived at PottstowD. The citizens had pre- 
pared an extertipore collation in the yard of one of the 
hotels, and after a speech from a minister, we attacked the 
viands and ate what we required. Then giving up our 
accoutrements and bidding farewell, the party of us from 
Phoenixville, under charge of Roily, got on the engine of 
a coal train and soon after day light came in sight of the 
town. At the depot we met Mr. Hicks and Billy Davis. 
Landis and I crossed the bridge together, but before going 
to the house I bathed myself thoroughly in the Schuylkill. 
On entering the gate the dog " Jack" did not recognize 
me and made such a noise that the whole household was 
aroused. Mother, Aunt Lib, Harry and Isaac came 
running to the door to welcome me — and thus was con- 
clude<l my part of the " Emergency." 

The Captain, First Lieutenant, Roily, Rennard, Nyce 
and several others were afterwards sick, and two of the 
company, Byers and Hays, died from the eftects of the ex- 
posure. 



398 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



MUSTER ROLL OF COMPANY F. 

Captain, George Rice. 
First Lieutenant, Henry Potts, Jr. 
Second Lieutenant, Mark H. Richards. 



William A. Dyer, 
William S. Lessig, 
Englebert Lessig. 

Mahlori V. Smith, 
Miller D. Evans, 
Henry Richards, 
D. W. Davis, 



Sergeants. 



George Scheetz, 
William G. Meigs, 



Corporals. 



John S. Lloyd, 

John Corbert, 

John Guest, 

Charles W. MacDonald. 



Privates. 



John Auchey, 
Wm. P. Buckley, 
Edwin R. Bechtel, 
Wm. J. Binder, 
Horace A. Custer, 
Hiram Collar, 
Abram Derolf, 
Daniel E. Ellis, 
John H. Fryer, 
Jonathan Fray, 
Charles Frick, 
John Fry, 
Daniel Graham, 
Samuel Hetzall, 
Joseph L.Hayes, Jr., 
Paul Herring, 
John W. HoUowbush, 
Henry Huber, 
Nathaniel P. Hobart, 



Jerome Byer, 
Christian G. Bair, 
Nathaniel Bickel, 
John R. Caswell, 
Mahlon Collar, 
Saml. S. Daub, 
Robert Ennis, 
Jonas D. Fritch, 
Thos. W. Feger, 
Benjamin Frock, 
John B. Ford, 
Michael Fryer, 
Henry C. Hitner, 
Jefferson F. Huber, 
Levi Herring, 
Isaac Herring, 
Jonathan Hummel, 
Henry J. Hobart, 
George Liggett, 



SIX WEEKS IN UNIFOKM. 



399 



David R. Land is, 
Michael Lessig, 
George Meigs, 
Merit Missimer, 
Patterson Marshall, 
Cyrus Nyce, 

Samuel W. Pennypacker, 
John Rhodes, 
Joseph G. Rennard, 
Thomas Reddy, 
Edwin F. Smith, 
Robert F. Small, 
Ephraim Schrop.\ 
Augustine W. Shick, 
Werner Thomas, 
W. W. Wynn, 



William Lachman, 
George Mayer, 
Van Bureii Mis.simer, 
George Morrow, 
Theodore McKaiie, 
Henry A. Prutzman, 
Henry G. Rahii, 
Richard Renshaw, 
Benjamin S. Rowe, 
Calvin B. Sponsler, 
George W. Shaner, 
Israel Spancake, 
George Steele, 
William J. Thomas, 
Joseph K. Welles, 
Frank Wagoner. 

Bates, Vol. V. p. 1285. 



INDEX 



Abington Meeting, 254, 
Acrelius, Israel, 170. 
Adams, John, 61, 68, 86, 87,250. 
Admiralty Court, 250. 
Age, newspaper, 313. 
Alcock.Jane, 271. 
Ames. William, 26. 
Amsterdam, Mennonite Church 
at, 25, 34. 
Amsterdam, Mennonite College 
at, 41, 159. 
Anabaptists, German, 21, 22, 23, 

206. 
Anderson, Isaac, 237. 
Anderson, Mat. 395. 
Anderson, Patrick, 275, 279. 
Andrews, Robert, 79, 80. 
Andrews, Simon, 54. 
Antoinette, Marie, 69. 
Antwerp, Linen weavers of, 159. 
Antwerp, persecutions at, 23, 

63. 
Appeal of George Keith, 49, 211, 

249. 
App, Michael, 275, 278. 
Arents, Jacob Claessen, 54. 
Arets, Lenart, 14, 15, 29, 30, 31, 
207, 217, 218. 
Ashenfelter, George, 311. 
Ashenfelter, Henry, 319. 
Ashenfelter, Sing., 316, 317, 318. 
Assembly, members of, 209, 232, 
252, 282. 
Assembly, power to adjourn, 252. 



Astronomer, the American, 
Atlee, Samuel John, 269, 
273, 274, 277, 278, 279, 
282, 
Atlee, Samuel Yorke, 271. 
Atlee, William, 265, 265, 

Atte Lee, Sir Richard, 271. 
Aubrey, Barbara, 255. 
Aubrey, Sir Reginald, ^56. 
Auchey John, 398. 
Ausbund, the 167. 
Axe's graveyard, 55. 

Babbit the pirate, 248, 250. 
Bache, B. F. 86. 
Bache, Richard, 77. 
Bachman, 167. 
Bailey's hill, battle of, 365. 
Bair, Christian G., 398. 
Baird, R., 198. 
Ballad, 238. 
Ballou, Eliza, 288. 
Baltimore, Lord, 66. 
Baptism, 22, 167. 
Baptists, 25, 186, 198. 
Baptists, Seventh-day, 225. 
Barclay, Robert, 22, 25, 27, 
Bartlesen, Sebastian, 54. 
Barton, Rev. Thomas, 41, 

Batten.burg, 21, 22. 

Bean, 167. 

Bebbers Township, 56. 



59. 

271, 

281, 

283. 

271, 



206. 

65, 
261. 



26 



402 



INDEX 



Beer, Edward, 50. 
Behagel Daniel, 13, 31. 
Beissel, Conrad, 166, 226. 
Bell, Major RobeVt, 355, 356. 
Berends, Ciaes, 53. 
Beehtel, Edwin R. 398. 
Bevan, Ann, 256. 
Bevan, Aubrey, 256. 
Bevan, Elizabeth, 255. 
Bevan, John, 255, 259. 
Bevan, Mary, 255. 
Bible, fir.st American, 10. 
Bible, proposal to print, 244. 
Bickel, Nathaniel, 398. 
Bickley, Abraham, 256. 
Biddle", Ool. Clement, 86, 237. 
Biddle, Owen, 72, 76, 77, 84. 
Biderman, Ludwig, 51. 
Biestkens, Nicholaes, 29. 
Binder Wm. J., 39S. 
Blackwell, John, 245, 248. 
Blanket, tossing from, 381. 
Bleikers, Johannes, 15, 16, 30, 

207. 
Bleikers, Peter, 30. 
Bloody Springs, 273. 
Bloody Theatre, 194. 
Blutige, Schauplatz, 24, 157. 
Board of War, 77. 
Bockenogen, Jan Willemse, 34. 
Bohm, Samuel, 197. 
Bom, Cornells, 32, 33, 39, 41. 
Bom Hermann, 45, 46. 
Book, a noteworthy, 156. 
Borner, Jacob, 197. 
Bosshardt or Buzzard, 221. 
Boss, Peter, 249. 
Boundary lines, State, 66, 73, 79, 

80. 
Bowman, 167. 
Bowyer, Thomas, 49. 



Boyle Rebecca E. 367. 
Braddock, Gen., 261. 
Bradford, Andrew, 41. 
Bradford, William, 41, 49, 53, 
63, 157, 211, 213, 244, 249. 
Brandt Albertus, 34, 48. 
Brandt, Susanna, 34. 
Brechtbuhl, Benedict, 185, 190. 
Brinley, George, 157, 164. 
Brodhead, Col. Daniel, 51, 274, 

278. 
Bromberg or Brownback, 221. 
Brouwer, Hubert, 190. 
Brownback's tavern, 265, 
Brown Henry Armitt, 34, 293,. 
295, 297. 
Brown, Peter, 21 7. 
Brubaker, 167. 
Bryan, George, 79. 
Buchholtz, Heinrich, 35. 
Buchholtz, Mary, 35. 
Buckley, Wm. P., 342, 344. 
Bucktail regiment, 303. 
Budd, Thomas, 211, 213, 249. 
Buffaloes, 188. 
Bullock guard, 273. 
Bull tavern, 231. 
Bun Peter, 54. 

Burchi, Hans, or Burghalter, 
185, 190. 
Burd, Major James, 273. 
Burns, John, 308. 
Bush, Joseph, 395. 
Butler, Dr. 122. 
Butler, Major, 265. 
Buttons, Horse-teeth, 235. 
Byer Jerome, 397, 398. 

Oadwallader, John, 274. 
Caldwell, Robert, 275. 
Calvinists, 181. 



INDEX. 



403 



Camp Curtin, 314. 
Carpenter, Joshua, 252. 
Carpenter, Samuel, 33, 213, 244, 

248. 
Carr, Sir Robert, 50. 
Cartledge, Edmund, 256. 
CaBsel A. H., 28, 37, 38, 58, '.)5, 

101, 167, 192, 195. 
Caswell.J. Ralston, 314,318, 320, 

321, 323, 326, 398. 
Catechism, 131. 
Caton, Wm. 26. 
Centen J. S. 197. 
Ceracchi, 87. 
Chalfant, A. L. 310, 321. 
Chalkley, Thomas, 26. 
Chicago Convention, 290, 292. 
Children, behavior of, 137. 
Christ Church, 282. 
Christenen, Wehrlosen, 162. 
Christians, defenseless, 63, 194, 

168. 
Ciphering, 107. 
Cist, Charles, 87. 
Claassen, Cornelia, 179. 
Clapham, Col. William, 273. 
Claus, Jacob, 27, 49. 
Claypoole, James, 16,19, 30, 32, 
Clinton, James, 80, 
Clock weights, 76. 
C'loister, Ephrata, 164, 165, 167, 
225, 226. 
Cloister, Inmates of, 226. 
Clothing, 255. 
Clymer, Daniel, 266. 
Coates, Major, 274. 
Cobbett Wm. 86. 
Cock, Hannah, 49. 
Collar Hiram, 398. 
Colston, Bernard, 66. 
Colston, Eleanor, 66. 



Columbia bridge, burning of, 361. 
Combe, 320, 330. 
Conduct, rules of, 137. 
Confessions of Faith, 180, 195, 

205. 
Congress, 280, 289. 
Conrad, Dr. J. H., 15. 
Convention to draft Constitution. 

77. 
Cook A., 248. 
Cooke Arthur. 213, 246. 
Cooking in camp, 331, 364, 384, 

391. 
Corbert, ( 'Orporal^John, 398. 
Cornelisz, Zacharias, 159., 
Cor nett Samuel, 309, 315. 
Cotweis Johann Conrad, 54. 
Couch, Gen. D. N. 333. 
Coulston, Joseph, 218, 219. 
Council of Safety, 78, 266, 276. 
Counterfeiters. Colonial, 263. 
Counterfeiting, 263, 266. 
Court, Admiralty, 250. 
Court at Germantown, 216. 
Coxe, Thomas, 13. 
Craske, Seth, 13. 
Crefeld, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 
25, 28, 29, 32, 35, 39, 40, 45, 
46, 47, 50, 54, 55, 56, 205, 206, 

207. 
Cressen Susanna, 49. 
Crisp, Stephen, 206. 
Croese Gerhard, 27. 
Gulp, Rufus E. 355. 
Curtin, Gov. A. G. 307, 308, 316, 
318, 327,381,383, 391. 
Custer, Horace A, 398. 

Dagworthy, John, 272. 
Dallas A. J. 86. 
Daub, Samuel S. 398 



404 



INDEX. 



Davis, Billy, 397. 

Davis, John, 275. 

Davis Joseph, 275. 

Davis, Septimus, 275. 

Davis, D. Webster, Corp., 319, 

342, 344, 398. 
Davis William, 49. 
Deane Silas, 69. 
Dean Joseph, 77. 
Decameron, first edition of, 157. 
Deer, 239. 

Defence, contributions for, 248. 
Defenseless Christians, 168. 
Dehufr, Abraham, 275, 278. 
De la Plaine, James, 49, 55, 218. 
De la Plaine, Nicholas, 49. 
Delavall, John, 33. 
Delft, David Joris of, 21. 
Democratic Convention, 312. 
Democratic Societies, 85, 86. 
Denithorne, John, 315, 319. 
De Ries, Hans, 25, 159. 
DerofF, Abram, 398. 
De Voss, Jan , 54,179. 
Dewees, Adrian Hendricks, 35, 

36. 
Dewees, Cornelius, 56, 218. 
Dewees, Dr. William P. 56, 283, 
Dewees, Gerhard Hendricks, 35, 

36. 
Dewitt, Simeon, 80. 
Dielil, J. W. 355. 
Dietz, Magdalena, 17. 
Dietz, Stephen, 17. 
Dilbeeck, Isaac, 17. 
Disciples, Church of, 289. 
Dock, Christopher, 89, 91, 92, 

93, 94, 96, 97. 
Dock, Christopher, Hymn by, 

148. 



Dock, Christopher, works of, 89, 

98 

Doeden, Jan., 45, 50. 

Dokkum, 26. 

Donens, Peter, 185. 
i Doopsgezinde, the, 22, 159, 169, 
I ■ 177. 

I Dordrecht convention, 28, 205. 

Dors, Herman, 54, 55, 219. 
I Dotzen, Madame, 207. 

Dracht n, 26. 
I Drill, 326, 331, 363, 385, 388. 
I Dubois, Solomon, 57. 
: Ducks, 239. 

, Dungwoody, Piichard, 211. 
j Dunker.s, 92, 164, 167. 
' Dnnkers at Ephrata, 164. 
I Duplouvys, Jan., 41. 
I Duponceau, Peter S. 86. 
' Dyer, Serg. William A. 322, 398, 

1 Eachus, Owen, 319, 372. 

I Earliest preachers, 46. 

! Early, General Jubal .A. 339,340, 

I Eben, M. 167. 

! Eckerlin, Israel, 227. 

I Eckley John, 246, 247, 248. 

I Etiquette, 137. 

j Ehrenfried, Joseph, 172. 

Ellicott, Andrew, 80, 81. 
I Ellis, Daniel E. 398. 

Emergency, 315. 

Emigrants, suffering of, 191. 

Emigration, cost of, 188. 

Emigration to Pennsylvania, 
Mennonite, 176. 

Engle, Paul, 48, 52. 

Ennis, Robert, 398. 

Ephrata, Dunkers at, 164, 165, 
167, 225, 226. 



INDEX. 



405 



Episcopal (Jhurch, St. James, 

231. 
Evans, Miller D., Corp., 322, 298, 
Evening Post, Pennsylvania, 82. 
Ewer, Robert, 214, 249. 
Ewing, John, 79, 81. 

Fairraan, Thomas, 30. 
Falkner, Daniel. 51, 52, 54, 217, 
Falkner, Justus, 52, 54. 
Falkner's Swamp, 51. 
Fatigue duty, 363. 
Feger Thomas W. 398. 
Finney, Walter, Lieut. 275. 
Fischer, Margaretha, 17. 
Fish, 261. 

Fletcher, Colonel, 248. 
Flinsberger, Brigitta, 17. 
Flogging atfschool, 122. 
Ford, John B. 320, 333, 362, 
387, 398. 
Ford, Samuel, 263. 
Fort Couch, 318, 354, 357, 362. 
Fort Rittenhonse, 87. 
Fox, George, 25, 177, 206. 
Fox, James, 250, 252. 
Frankfort Land Co., 13, 36. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 61, 62, 77, 
84, 261, 262, 264. 
Franklin, William, 262. 
Frame, Richard, 41, 47, 208. 
Fray, Jonathan, 398. 
French and Indians, 273. 
French and Indian War, 262, 

273. 
Frey, Henrich, 31, 35. 
Friedsam, Vater, 166, 226. 
Fried Paul, 57. 
Frick, Charles, 398. 
Fritch, Jonas D. 398. 
Fruits, 187. 



Fryer, John H. 308. 
Fryer, Michael, 398. 
Fry, John, 398. 
Funck, Martin, 197. 227. 
Funk, Heinrich, 161, 168, 169. 

195. 

Funk, John F., 22, 29, 46, 173, 

194, 159. 

Gaetschalck, Jacob, 54, 179. 
Garber, 167. 
Garfield, Edward, 287. 
Garfield, James Abram, 285,287, 

288, 290, 291. 
Garrett, Morton, 275. 
Gates, Gen. 280. 
Gaukes, Ydse, 23. 
Gazette, Pennsylvania, 61, 67, 

234, 235, 278. 
Geissler, Daniel, 48, 51, 53. 
Geistliches Magazien,'^Saur's, 96, 
97^ 137, 148. 
Genet, 85, 

Gerckes, Anthony, 54. 
German Society of Phila. 95. 
Germantown Charter, 46. 
Germantov^'n, first book printed 
in, 225. 
Germantown, home life at, 38 
Germantown, Pa., settlement C'f, 

7. 
Germantown Seal, 47. 
Gerrits, Lambert, 36. 
Gerrits, William, 36. 
Gerritz, Lubbert, 25. 
Gesang Buch, Unpartheyisches, 

148. 
Gettysburg campaign, 304, 305. 
Gibb, John, 208. 
Gilbert, Dr. W. Kent, 40. 
Girard, Stephen, 86. 



406 



INDEX. 



Gitt, A. F., 355. 
Godschalck, Jacob, 161, 194. 
Gordon, Dr., 68. 
Gordon, General, o40. 
Gordon's P'ord, 295. 
Goredyke, 26. 
Gottschalck, George, 51. 
Gotwals, 167, 
Gosses, Hemine, 27. 
Graham, Daniel, 350, 358, 398. 
Grain, 187. 

Grant, General, 276, 277. 
Graveyard, Mennonite, 53, 220, 
Green wait, Major, 328. 
Greene, Nathaniel, 122. 
Green Tree, 259. 
Greyback prisoners, 375. 
Grey hacks, 352, 364. 
Grow, 26. 

Growden, Joseph, 246, 247, 248, 

253. 
Grubb, 167. 
Guest, Corp. John, 398 
Gutenberg Bible, 157. 

Hall, Gen., 359, 366, 
Hall, Gen., headquarters, 370. 
Haller, (Jranville 0., Major, 337, 
338, 340, 355, 361. 
Hamilton, John, 275. 
Hans de R'\e^, 25. 
Hanselman, Philip, 226. 
Harberdinck, Levin, 51. 
Hardie, Thomas, 227. 
Hard Tack, 316, 359. 
Harmens, Trientje, 54. 
Harmer, William, 56. 
Harrisburg, Rebels at, 357. 
Hart John, 45,211. 
Hartsfelder, Jurian, 31. 
Hasevoet, Abraham, 13, 31. 



Haslett, battalion of, 276. 
Haalibacher, Hans, 167. 
Hayes, Jr. Joseph L. 397, 398. 
Haynes, Col.,280. 
Hazard's Register, 13, 30, 33. 
Heerveen, 26. 

Henderson, William, 275, 278. 
Hendrichs, Peter, 27. 
Hendricks, Barnt, 54, 
Hendricks, Gerhard, 35, 36, 42, 
44, 209. 
Hendricks, May, 35. 
Hendricks, Sarah, 35. 
Hendricks, ',William, 52. 
Hendricks, Laurens, 183,'' 
Henleven, 26. 
Herbert, Thomas, 275, 278. 
Hermans, Reyner, 36, 46, 217. 
Hermit of the Wissahickon, 57. 
Herring Isaac, 398. 
Herring, Levi, 398. 
Herring, Paul, 398. 
Hetzell, Samuel, 398. 
Hicks, Mr., 397. 
Hill, Henry, 84. 
Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
vania, 13, 15, 16, 95, 164, 
173,227, 238, 287, 291. 
Hitner, Henry (•., 398. 
Hobart George, 398. 
Hobart Nathaniel P., 398. 
Hocker, Ludwig, 217. 
Hoecker, Margaret, 226. 
Hoedt, ('asper, 49. 
Hoffen, Annecke Inden, 53. 
HofFen, Evert Inden, 53. 
Hofi'en, Gerhard Inden, 53. 
Hoffen, Hermann Inden, 53. 
HofFen, Peter Inden, 53. 
Holfert, 26. 
Hollanders' Spring, 37, 



INDEX. 



407 



Holland, Samuel, 73. 
Hollowbush, John W, 398. 
Holtzboover, Jacob Gerritz, 54. 
Hoopes, Joshua, 253. 
Hoorn, 26. 

Hooton, Thomas, 272. 
Horses, 260. 
Hosters, Willem, 54. 
Honfer, Frank, 52. 
Houses, deserted, 357, 360. 
Houesacker, Major, 279. 
Howe, General, 77. 
Howell, Captain, 278. 
Howe, Lord, 271. 
Howe, Thomas, 220. 
Huber, Henry, 398. 
Huber, Jefferson F. 398. 
Hudson, Henry, 256. 
Hudson, William, 256. 
Hummel, Jonathan, 398. 
Huston, J r., Alexander, 275, 278. 
Hutcheson, George, 211. 
Hutchins Thomas, 80, 81. 
Hymn by < '. Dock, 148. 

In de Hoffen, Anne, 220. 
In de Hott'en, Gerhard, 56. 
In de Hoffen, Herman, 56, 220, 
In de Hoffen, Evert, 53. 
Indiana, 50, 273. 
Indians, (Jonestoga, 88. 
Indians, massacre by, 197. 
Indians, treaties with, 281. 
Isaacs, Abraham, 86. 
Isaacs, Dirck, 36. 
Isaacs, Hermann, 36. 
Isaacs, Jacob, 31, 36. 
Institution, Snow Hill, 227. 

Jacobs, Benjamin, 235. 
Jacobs, Hannah, 72. 



Jacobs, Israel, 261. 
Jacobs, John, 56. 
James, Dr., 122. 
Jansen, Catharine, 98. 
Jansen, Oonradt, 179. 
Jansen, Dirck, 54, 218. 
Jansen, Klas, 46, 56, 57, 
Jansen, Peter, 98. 
Jansen, Reynier, Colonial 

printer, sketch of, 52. 
Jawert, Balthasar, 14. 
Jawert, Johannes, 51, 217. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 1 1 , 68, 81 , 88. 
Jeffries, Wm., 16. 
Jenkins, John D., 309, 310. 
Jenkins, Lieut. Col., 327, 341, 
349, 360. 
Jennings, Col. Wm. W., 327, 

379. 
Jennings, Samuel, 48, 213, 216 
Jerman, Edward, 218. 
Jever, 26. 
John, Jerome, 367. 
Johnson, Dirk, 217. 
Johnson, Joe, 315. 
Johnson, Francis, 281. 
Jones Griffith, 252, 254. 
Jones, Robert, 252. 
Joris, David, 22, 26, 29, 

Kaldkirchen, 11, 40. 
Karsdorp, Harmen, 53, 179, 180. 
Karsdorp, Isaac, 54. 
Kassel, Arnold, 36, 48, 49. 
Kasselberg, Hendrick, 46. 
Kassel, Elizabeth, 36. 
Kassel, Heinrich, 27, 97. 
Kassel, Johannes, 36, 37, 46. 
Kassel, Mary, 36. 
Kassel, Peter, 36. 
Kassel, Sarah, 36, 



408 



INDEX. 



Kassel, Yillis, 37, 10 1, 19n. 
Kastner, Paul, 40, 48. 
Kaufman, Michael; 197. 
Keeley, Jerome, Sergeant, 314, 

.".If). 
Keith, George, 34, 48, 49, 210, 
211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 210. 
220, 248, 249, 250. 
Keith, (xeorge, appeal of, 49, 
211,249. 
Keith, controversy, 210, 248. 
Kelpius, Johannes, 51. 
Kemler, Dr. Johannes, 14. 
Kempis, Thomas A.,'92. 
Keurlis, Peter, 15, 10,207,217, 
Keyser, Dirck, Jr., 219. 
Keyser, Leonard, 41. 
Keyser, Dirck, «r., 41, 219. 
Kichline, Battalion of, 270. 
Kirk, John, 275. 
Kite, Wm.,44. 
Klever, Peter, 46 50, 53. 
Klincken, Arent, 39, 48, 55, 

218. 
Klosterman, Ennicke, 17,45, 
Klumpges, Jacob Jansen, 45. 
Knapsack, support of, 328. 
Koch, Stephen, 227. 
Kolb, Dielman, 93, 101, 108. 
Kolb, Henry, 57. 
Kolb, Jacob, 57, 
Kolb, Martin, 57, 101, 179, 194. 
Kolb, Peter, 179. 
Koster, Henry Benihard, 49, 51, 
Kramer, Andiies, 4ti, 48. 
Krey, Jan, 54, 50. 
Krisheim, 35, 30. 
Kunder.s, Thones, 15, 18, 40, 
207, 209, 218. 
Kuster, Arnold. 28, 48, 50. 



Kuster Gertrude, 50. 
Kuster, Hermann us, 28, 50, 56, 

57. 
Kuster, Johannes, 50, 54, 56. 
Kuster, Paulus, 50. 

Lachman, William, 399. 

Lamb, ('harles, 122. 

Landis, David R., 320, 338, 339. 

361. 382, 39H. 
Lane, Edward, 56, 250. 
Lang, James, 275. 
Laurens, Jan, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34 
"Leap Frogs," 325, 332. 
Lebrun, Johannes, 14, 
Lee, Gen. K. E., 304, 339, 357. 

365, 377, 381. 
Leeuwarden, 26. 
Lensen, Jan, 15, 46, 29, 30, 32, 
48, 207. 
Lessig Michael, 399. 
Lessig, Sergeant Engleberi, 322, 

398. 
Lessig, Sergeant William S., 
322, 398. 
Letter writing, 108. 
Levering, Gerhard, 39. 
Levering, Wigard, 39. 
Leyden, John of, 21, 22, 23. 
Liggett, George, 398. 
Linderman, Jan, 51. 
Linen, (ierman, 47, 208. 
Linen weaving. 15, 20, 47, 208. 
Linen weaving .stool, 1;>. 
Linn, John B., 271. 
Lloyd, David, 252. 
Lloyd, Horace, 309, 313, 314, 
:;15,316, 317, 318, 321, 392. 
Lloyd, John S., Corp., 322, 382, 
343,398, 



INDEX. 



409 



Lloyd, Peter Z., 275. 

Lloyd, Thomas, 214, 246, 247, 

248, 249. 
Loan office, 79. 
Lockhardt, 39L 
Logan, George, 86. 
Logan, James, 26, 33, 57, 252, 

253, 254. 
Long Island, battle of, 276. 
Longstreet, Gen. J. B., 808. 
Loof, Anthony, 46. 
Lorentz, Heinrich, 54. 
Loyalist poetry, 61, 82, 83. 
Lucken, Jan, 15, 16, 29, 65,207. 
Lucken, Mercken Williamsen, 

16. 
Lukens, Adam, 29. 
Lnkens, John, 65, 70, 72, 80, 84. 
Lutheran preacher, firnt, 54. 
Lutherans, 187. 
Luther, Martin, 22. 
Lutke, Daniel, 51. 
Lutz, battalion of, 276. 
Luyken, Jan, 160. 
Lyonists, 160. 

Maclay, Wm., 281. 
Madison, James. 79, 80, 283. 
Mann, Wm. B., 325, 367. 
Marching, 373, 377, 378. 
March to Harrisburg, 351. 
Marshall, Abraham, 275. 
Marshall, Patterson, 399. 
Martyrer Spiegel, Van Braght's, 
11, 155, 195, 196. 
Mason and Dixon's line, 66, 79. 
Massey, Mary, 260. 
Matlack, Col. Timothy, 83, 266. 
Mathys, Jean, 21. 
Mayer, George, 399. 
McClellen, Joseph, 275, 278,313. 



McClure, Col. A. K., 374. 
McComb, John, 213, 249. 
McCord, Jos. T., 309, 310, 316, 

819. 
McDonald, Chas. W., 322, 361, 

398. 
McGraw, Reverend, 272. 
McKane, Theodore, 399. 
McKean, Thomas, 84. 
McKnight, Adjutant Harry W., 

328. 
Meade Gen. Geo. G., 357, 365, 
377, 381. 
Meels, Hans Heinrich, 54. 
Meetings, Quaker, 207. 
Meigs, George, 350, 352, 357, 
394, 399. 
Meigs, Wm. G., 322, 331, 334, 
335, 380, 398. 
Memorials, collection of, 360. 
Mennonite Churches, 29, 46, 53, 
57. 91. 
Mennonite College, 178. 
Mennonite Colony on the Dela- 
ware, 50. 
Mennonite confession of Faith, 

41. 

Mennonite martyrs, 38, 36. 

Mennonite preachers, 29, 37, 40, 

54, 63, 195, 197. 

Mennonites, sect of, 19, 20, 22, 

28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 41, 45, 

46, 50, 54, 56, 58, 62, 63, 92, 

97, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165, 

167, 168, 169, 172, 178, 18(,i, 

181, 182, 192, 198, 199. 

Mennonites Amish, 173. 

Mennonites, hymn books of, 148. 

Mennonites, number of, 199. 

Mennonite weavers, 23, 32, 47, 

54, 57. 



27 



410 



TNDRX. 



Menno, Simons, 21, 22, 24, 169. 
Mercer Gen. Hugh, 276. 
Mercury, American Weekly, 55, 
231, 272, 287. 
Merian, Casper, 13. 
Meylin, John, 167, 227. 
Mifflin, Thomas, 84. 
Miles, Col. Samuel, 273, 274, 

279. 
Militia, 308. 
Millan, Hans, 45, 53. 
Millan, Imity, 53. 
Millan, Margaret, 54. 
Millan, Matteus, 48, 53. 
Miller, Peter, 166, 227. 
Milligan, Charles H., 319. 
Milligan, Samuel, 319. 
Milroy, Gen., 326, 383. 
Mint, U. S., 81. 
Missimer, Merit, 399. 
Missimer, Van Buren, 391, 399. 
Moore, Hall, 231,235,238, 261. 
Moore, John, 231, 235. 
Moore, Lieut, 278. 
Moore, William, of Moore Hall, 
231,232,233,234,235,261. 
Moore, William, anecdotes con- 
cerning, 237. 
Moore, Wm., petitions against, 

233. 
Moravians, 204. 
Morgan, J. B., 309. 
Morris, Agnes, 39. 
Morris, Anthony, 39, 45, 213, 
249, 250, 251, 252. 
Morris, Cawalader, 86. 
Morrow, George, 399. 
Mowry, Lieutenant, 335, 355. 
Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior, 19. 
Muller, Elizabeth, 29. 
MuUer Frederick, 29, 173; 



I Muller George, 54 
i Munster, Anabaptists, of, 20. 
\ Munzer, Thomas, 21 
j Murray, Cap., 278. 
1 Murray, Francis, 275. 
; Murray Humphrey, 213. 
i Musketry, Battalion, 269, 273, 

274. 
Muster roll, 398. 

Newberry, John, 56. 

New Sweden, history of, 170. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 65, 76, 82. 

Neuss, Jan, 52, 56. 

Neville, Joseph, 80. 

Nice, John, Captain, 275, 278. 

Nicholson, Colonel John P., 308. 

Nordyke, Jacob, 27. 

Norris, Isaac, 52, 253. 

Noteworthy, Book, 157. 

Nova Scotia lands, 261. 

Nyce, Cyrus, 319, 335, 336, 342, 

352, 374, 382, 385, 387, 388, 

389, 390, 391, 394. 396, 397, 

399. 

Observatory, Astronomical, 83. 

Ochse, Muntmeester, 186. 

Odell, Rev. Jonathan, 83. 

Offer des Heeren, 158. 

Ohio, Mennonites of, 95. 

Olethgo, 259. 

Op den Graeff, Abraham, 15, 16, 
18, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 42, 
44, 46, 49, 206, 207, 208, 209, 
211, 216,217, 218,219,220. 

Op den Graeff, Dirck, 15, 16, 18, 

28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 42, 44, 

46, 48, 49, 206, 207, 208, 

209. 210, 211,216, 217. 



INDEX. 



411 



Op den GraeflT, Hermann, 15.16, 

18, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 46, 

49, 205, 206, 207, 208. 209, 

211, 216,217, 219. 

Op den Graeff, Jacob. 217, 220. 

Op den Graeff, Margaret, 206, 

220. 
Op den GraefF, Nilcken or Nieltje, 

219. 
Op den Graeff, Trintje, 219. 
Op de Trap, Hermann, 46. 
Oration, Rittenhouse's, 61, 73. 
Orrery, Rittenhouse's, 67. 
Oudeboone, 26. 
Onterman, Jacques, 159. 

Page, John, 80. 

Pannebecker, Heinrich, 53, 56, 

57. 

Papen, Heivert, 36, 40, 46, 48, 

209. 

Papermill, tirst in America, 10, 
41, 63. 

Paroled prisoners, 361. 

Parr. Dr., 122. 

Parry, Colonel Caleb, 274, 275, 
277, 278. 

Pastorius, Christian, 16. 

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 9, 10, 
13, 14,16, 17, 18. 19,30, 31, 
32, 33, 34, 38, 89, 42, 44, 45, 
46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 55, 204, 
205, 207, 209, 210, 220, 254. 

Pastorius, Henry, 17, 18. 

Pastorius, John Samuel, 17, 18. 

Pastorius, Magdalena, 17. 

Pastorius, Martin, 17. 

Pastorius, Melchior, 17. 

Peck, Dr. W. A., 372, 373. 

Pell, Captain, 327. 

Pemberton, Israel, 18. 



Penn, Letitia, 256. 

Pennsylvania, Description of, 

187. 

Pennsylvania, Legislature of,. 69, 

70. 

Pennsylvania, University of, 65. 

Penn, Thomas, 70. 

Penn, William, 11, 12, 13, 14, 

26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 38, 39, 40, 

50, 52, 160, 177, 178, 206, 

209, 216, 244, 245, 246, 248, 

251, 252, 260. 

Persecution of the Anabaptists, 

171. 

Petersen, Isaac, 54. 

Peters, Matthew, 218. 

Peterson, Dr. Johann Wilhelm, 

U. 

Peters, Reinei, 217. 

Petrobusians, 160. 

Pettinger, Johannes, 50, 217. 

Pfannebecker, Johannes, 37. 

Philips, Dirck, 21, 22. 

Philosophical Society, American, 

61, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, S3, 84, 

86, 87. 

Phoenix Iron Company, 309, 318, 

319. 

Picket, 352, 353, 368. 

Pickets, dodging, 382. 

" Pie Company," 332. 

Pietists, 14, 49, 92. 

Piggot, John, 53. 

Pine Grove, 344. 

Pirates, 248. 250. 

Pitt, William, 271. 

Pletjes, Grietjen, 206. 

Plockhoy, Pieter Cornehsz, 50, 

51. 

Poems, 148, 238. 

Police duty, 369. 



412 



INDEX. 



Porter, Andrew, 80. 
Potts, Henry, Lieut., 321, 398. 
Potts, Jonas, 218. 
Potts, Major James, 275. 
Potts, Thomas, 217. 
Printing, early, 49, 52. 
Profanity, 110. 

Protestant Episcopal Ohurch, 

216. 
Provincial Council, 244, 245, 246, 
247, 248, 252, 253. 
Prutzman, Henry A., 399. 
Pusey, Caleb, 204, 213: 

Quaker meeting h(.use, 39. 

Quaker merchants, 16, 40. 

Quaker preachers, 26, 30, 33. 

Quakers, 26, 33, 34, 39, 40, 44, 

45, 48, 62, 63, 72, 92, 159, 

160, 181, 204. 205, 206, 211, 

212, 232, 233, 236, 249, 250, 

260, 263. 

Quakers, Besses suffering of, 

"^243. 

Quakers, origin of, 25. 

Quarry, Robert, 250, 251. 



Radnor Church, 237. 
Rahn, Henry G., 399. 
Ramsey, Colonel, 319. 
Railroad accident, 330. 
Railroads, injuries to, 377. 
Rawle, Francis, 33, 252. 
Rawlft, Wm., 36. 
Rawle, W. Brooke, 36. 
Rebellion, 289, 301, 307. 
Rebels at Harrisburg, 357. 
Rebels, engagement with. 



342, 
355. 



Rebels wounded, 387. 
Rebenstock, Johannes, 54. 



Reddy, Thomas, 318. 320, 321 .. 

323, 324, 326, 334, 344, 355. 
399. 
Reed, Joseph, 266, 278, 270. 
Reformed, the, 187. 
Remke, Govert, 14, 28,31, 40, 56. 
Remke, Johann, 28. 
Renl)erg, Dirck, 54, 56. 
Renberg, Michael, 54. 
Renberg, Wilhelm, 54, 56. 
Rennard, Joseph G., 320. 321, 

326, 331, 333, 334, 335, 337. 

344, 345. 353, 354, 362, 365, 

369, 393, 394, 397. 
Renshaw, Richard or Tucker,320, 
347, 387, 399. 
Replevin, 250. 

Revolutionary War, 76, 81, 171, 
236, 259, 277. 
Revolution, French, 86. 
Reyniers, Joseph, 53. 
Reyniers, Stephen, 53. 
Reyniers, Tiberius. 53. 
Rhoads, Samuel, 72. 
Rhodes, John, 320, 324. 338. 
339, 361,382, 389, 399. 
Rice, Captain George, 321. 324, 
339, 354, 371 , 398. 
Richards, Henry, 398. 
Richards, Mark H., Lieutenant, 

321, 335, 341, 345, 396, 398. 
Richardson, Captain Joseph, 257. 
Richardson, Ellinor, 254. 
Richardson hole, 265. 
Richardson, Samuel, 213, 2-lo, 

259. 
Richardson, Samuel, disfiute? 
with Governor, 245. 
Richardson's Island, 261. 
Rieser or Razor, 221. 
Riesman, Conrad, 227. 



INDEX. 



413 



Rittinghuysen, Gerhard, 40. 
Rittinghuyeen, Klaas, 40. 
Rittinghuysen, Willem, 10, 40, 
50, 51, 63, 178. 
Rittinghtiysen, Willem, Menno- 
nite minister, 40. 
RitteDhouse, David, 11, 60. 
Rittenhouse Matthias, 64. 
Roberts, Charles, 376. 
Roberts, John, 252. 
Rodney, Caesar, 86. 
Roosen, Gerhard, 20, 22, 23, 25, 
27, 29. 
Roosen, Paul, 54. 
Ross, John, 236. 
Rothman, Bernhard, 21. 
Rowe, Benjamin S., 399. 
Royer, Sergeant Major John W., 

328. 
Rub, Hans, 185. 
Rupp, I. D., 29, 173, 185. 
Rutters, Koenradt, 17. 
Rutter, Thomas, 49. 
Ryndevtz, Tjaert, 24. 

Safety, Committee of, 76. 
Safety, Council of, 78, 79. 
Salford Township, 93. 
Sangmeister, Heinrich, 227. 
Saur Bible, 10, 173. 
Saur Christopher, 10, 11, 93, 94, 
95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 195, 225, 
226. 
Saur, Maria Christiana, 226. 
Schaffer, Isaac, 45. 
Scheflfer, Dr. J. G. De Hoop, 34, 
58, 163, 177. 
Scherkes, David, 32, 49, 219. 
Scheuten, genealogy, 29, 206. 
Schlegel, Christopher, 54. 
Schneyder, Johannes, 197. 



Scholl, Johannes, 56. 
School, discipline, 109, 121, 122, 
School, earliest essay upon, 95. 
Schools, 55, 98. 

Schools, Bible exercises in, 132. 
School, silence in, 118. 
School teaching, 92, 93, 98, 272. 
Schrope, Ephraim, 399. 
Scott, John, 243. 
Schumacliei', Frances, 35. 
Schumacher, Gertrude, 35. 
Schumacher, Isaac, 55. 
Schumacher, Jacob, 17. 
Schumacher, Jr., Peter. 15, 35, 
37, 49, 55, 57, 179, 217. 
Schumacher, Mary, 35. 
Schumacher, Sarah, 35. 
Scouting party, 334. 
Scripts, German, 91, 101. 
Schutz, Dr. Johan Jacob, 13, 31. 
Schwenkfeldt, Caspar, 26. 
Schwenkfelders, 92, 163, 192. 
Seidensticker, Professor Oswald, 

9, 18, 27, 32, 37, 39, 58, 203, 

205, 228. 
Seimens, Jan, 15, 16, 39, 207. 
Seimens, Walter, 32, 218. 
Seelig, Johannes, 51. 
Sellen, Dirck, 45, 
Sellen, Hendrick, 28, 45, 46, 57. 
Sellers, John, 70. 
Sell, Martin, 51. 
Sewel, William, 27. 
Shaffer, Thomas, 311 , 
Shaffer, V. N., 309, 314, 315. 
Shaffner, Petei-, 275. 
Shaner, George W., 399. 
Shee, John, 77. 

Sheetz, Geo. Sergeant, 322, 323, 
, 343, 388, 389, 398. 
Shic'k, Augustine W., 399. 



414 



INDEX. 



Shippen, Edward, 252, 255, 272. 
Shippen, Joseph, 208. 
Shippen, Rebecca, 33. 
Shoemaker, Abraham, 36. 
Shoemaker. Barbara. 30. 
Shoemaker, Benjamin, 36. 
Shoemaker, Elizabeth, 36. 
Shoemaker, George, 36. 
Shoemaker, Isaac, 36. 
Shoemaker, Sarah, 36. 
Shoemaker, Susanna, 36. 
Sigel, General, 395. 
Silans, Johau, 45. 
Simcock, J., 248. 
Simons, Menno, 21, 22, 45, 159. 
Sipman, Dirck, 12, 14, 15, 16, 
28, 31, 35, 40, 56. 
Siverte, Cornelius, 45, 48, 49, 

52. 
Sii Weeks in Unilorm, 305. 
Skippack Church, 57, 194. 
Skippack, settlement at, 56. 
Slaveholders, 255. 
Slavery, first protest against, 42, 
205, 209. 
Small, Robert P., 399. 
Smallwood, battalions of, 276. 
Smith, Dr. William, 10, 60, 62, 
65.69,70.71. 72,84,234,235, 
261. 
Smith, Edwin ¥., 399. 
Smith, Jacob, 236. 
Smith, John, 218. 
Smith, Mahlon V. Corp.. 398. 
Smith, Mattheus, 2] 8, 219. 
Smith, Sergeant, 314. 
Smitty, 325. 
Snyder, Sicke, 21. 
Souplis, Andries, 45. 
Sower, Samuel, 314. 
Spaucake, Israel, 399: 



Sponsler, Calvin B., 399. 
Speikerman, Marieke, 54. 
Springett, Herbert, 13. 
Spring, the bloody, 273. 
Sprogell, John Henry. 54. 
Sprogell, Ludwig Christian, 54. 
Stahl, General, 395. 
Stampede, a, 347. 
Standish, Miles, 204. 
Statues, Pennsylvania, 88. 
Stauffer, Daniel, 197. 
Steele, George, 399. 
Stirling, General, 277. 
Stocks, 55. 
Stores, 272. 
Story, Thomas, 26, 27. 
Strauss, George, 13, 31. 
Strayer, Andrew, 57. 
Streypers, Jan, 15. 16, 28, 30, 
31, 39, 40, 50. 
Streypers, Willem, 14, 15, 16, 
30, 32, 38, 40, 50, 207, 218. 
Stryckers, Henry, 98. 
Stryckers, Margaret, 98. 
Surveyer, first German, 53. 
Sutor, James, 275. 
Sutlers, 363, 381. 
Swiss Mennonites, 167. 
Switzerland, Calvinists in, 160. 

Tam.sen, Klas, 36. 
Taylor, Bayard, 302. 
Taylor, Charles Frederick, 299. 
Telner, Jacob, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 
28, 31,32,33,41,46,50,181, 
207, 219. 
Telner 's Township, 34. 
Ten Cate, S. Blaupot, 20, 21, 24, 

41. 
Tents, method of ejecting, 333. 
Thiessen, Frantz, 159= 



INDEX. 



415 



Thiessen, Niclaus, 159. 
Thomas, Col. W. B., 329. 
Thomas, David, 264. 
Thomas, Gabriel, 41, 47, 63, 

208. 
Thomas, Werner, 399. 
Thomas, Wm. J., 399. 
Thompson, Gen., 265. 
Tibben, Heinrich, 54. 
Tombstone, oldest, 55. 
Tories, 264, 265. 
Town Council, 255. 
Townsend, Richard, 30. 
Transit of Mercury, 71, 84. 
Transit of Venus, 62, 70. 
Treasurer, State, 78. 

Treaties, Indian, 281. 

Trees, 187. 

Tresse, Thomas, 52. 

Tubben, Henry, 218. 

Tunes, Abraham, 15, 16, 30, 

207. 

Tunes, Hermann, 29, 217. 

Turner, Martha, 33. 

Turner, Robert, 33. 

Tyson, Cornelius, 55, 

Tyson family, 159. 

Tyson, Reynier, 15, 49, 207, 

217. 

Ueberfeld, Johann Wilhelm, 13, 

31. 
Umstat, Anna Margaretta, 35. 
Umstat, Barbara, 35. 
Umstat, Eve, 35. 
Umstat, Hans Peter, 35. 
Umstat, Johannes, 35, 56, 217. 
UpdegraefF, Updegrave and Up- 
degrove, 220. 

Valentine, Henry, 275. 



Valley Forge, 237, 259. 
Van Aaken, H. J., 39, 40. 
Van Bebber, Isaac Jacobs, 32, 
36, 57. 
Van Bebber, Jacob Isaacs, 14, 

28, 32, 35, 36, 46, 49, 57, 

209. 

Van Bebber, Matthias, 32, 35, 

36, 40, 56, 57. 

Van Braght's martyrs' mirror, 

11, 155. 

Van Braght, Tieleman Jans, 20, 

29, 36, 63, 159, 160, 161, 194. 
Van Burklow, Reynier Her- 
manns, 36, 46, 57. 

Vanderslice, Hamilton, Sergt., 

314. 

Vanderslice, John, 361. 

Vanderslice, 265. 

Van der Smissen, Dr., 199. 

Van der Smissen, Henry, 192. 

Vyn der Werf, Richard, 54. 

Van de Walle, Jacob, 13, 31. 

Van de Wilderness, John, 218. 

Van de Woestyne, John, 50. 

Van Gelder, Dr. A. N. 198. 

Vanhorn, Wm., 77. 

Van Kolk, Dirck, 45, 46, 20y. 

VanSanen, Weyntie, 41. 

Van Sintern, Heinrich, 54. 

Van Sintern, Isaac, 54, 179. 

Van Sintern. Magdalena, 179. 

Van Vossen, Arnold, 54, 56, 

219. 

Venus, transit of, 62, 70. 

Vicksburg, capture of, 366. 

Von Mastricht, Dr. Gerhard, 14. 

Von Merlau, Eleanora, 14. 

Von Rodeck.Johan Bonaventura, 

17. 

Von Wylich, Dr. Thumas, 14. 



416 



INDEX. 



Von Zach, 73. 

Wagoner, Frank, 399. 
Waldenses, 20, 21, 41, 47, 160. 
Wain, Nicholas, 253. 
Ward Bernard, 275. 
Warner, Christian, 51. 
Washington, 81, 276, 279, 280, 

283. 
Wayne, Anthony, 88, 92, 236, 
262, 279, 283. 
Wayne Isaac, 232, 233. 
Wentz, 167. 
Weaving, 10, 20. 
Webb, Robert, 251. 
Weidman, Matthias, 275. 
Welles, Joseph K. 39v^. 
Wens, Adrian, 168. 
Wens, Hans Matthias, 168. 
Wens, Maeyken, 167, 168. 
Wertmuller, George, 17. 
Wert, Wm., 356. 
Whitakei-, A. R., 310. 313, 315, 
316, 318, 321. 
Whitehead, George, 243. 
White's Battalion of Cavalry. 

340. 
Whittier, J. G., 9, 164, 203, 205. 
Wilcox, Joseph, 252, 253. 
Wilderness, woman in the, 51. 



Wilhelms, Gisbert, 46. 

Willems, Dirck, 63. 

Williams, David, 34. 

Williams Elizabeth, 63. 

Williams, Evan, 63. 

Williams, Jan, 46. 

Williamson, Col. W. L., 366. 

Williams, Thomas, 217. 

Willing, Thomas, 84. 

Wiseman, Thomas, 56. 
! Witherspoon, Dr., 69. 

Witmer, Henry, 356. 
I Wohlfahrt, Michael, 227. 
' Wolff, Paul, 45, 48, 55, 218, 219. 

Woodward, Judge, 312, 313. 

Woolman, John, life of, 92. 

Worralls, Richard, 42, 210. 

Wynn, W. W., 399. 

Zaller, Melchoir, 185. 
Ziegler, Michael, 57, 161, 194. 
Zimmerman, 167. 
Zimmerman, Christopher, 56. 
Zimmerman, Philip Christian, 

54. 
Zionitischer Weyrauchs Hugel, 
224, 225. 
Zook, Shem, 173. 
Zwinglius, 22. 



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